


Remaining Unresolved

by skatefasteatgrass



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, EVERYBODY IS A L I V E, F/F, Fluff, High School AU, Slow Burn, annabeth is just Gay Panicking so hnnng i relate, anyway have this i guess, piper is. confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-05-05 06:52:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 48,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14612058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatefasteatgrass/pseuds/skatefasteatgrass
Summary: Piper is just months away from moving to Oklahoma, and leaving behind everybody she loves. To make matters worse, she's loaded down with her hag of a mother reappearing in her life, an unresolved problem and an 'unrequited' crush on Annabeth Chase, which, rather unfortunately, are all related to each other. She's constantly stuck trying to fix things, but the way things are going, she's looking down a barrel of hardships forever, and the move certainly isn't helping things.She's on a countdown to solve everything, from crumbling friendships and relationships to accepting her mother back into her life, before she leaves it all behind- for good.And if she can't?Everything up to this moment wouldn't have been worth it.





	1. Talking to Walls

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this may be shit. sorry in advance lol

**-Piper-**

Piper McLean was, in all sense and honour of the word, absolutely _screwed_.

She couldn’t focus on _anything_ anymore. And anything _really_  meant _anything_ ; her grades, her home life, _herself_ \- she was utterly detached from reality.  
Exhibit A: she’d just collided with a wall, and _apologised_ to it. To an inanimate _object_.  
“I’m sorry,” Piper murmured.  
“Seriously, Pipes? You just said sorry to the wall of a high school.” Leo Valdez, obvious as ever, pulled her back on her feet. Piper twisted to look at him, grimacing and shoving her array of old papers back in her books.  
“Yeah... I did. Unfortunately.” Piper shook her head, her braids whacking her in the face in the act. “Gah! Stupid hair. And wall.”  
“Jeez, you’ve almost been as unfocused as _me_  lately,” Leo said, laughing incredulously. Piper scowled, avoiding his eyes.  
“Leave her alone, Leo. She’s just been busy with moving and stuff.” Jason Grace appeared out of nowhere, resting a hand on Piper’s shoulder. “You good, Pipes?”  
Yep. Moving. That was exactly why Piper had been so unfocused for the past week... month... two months...  
“Fine,” Piper grumbled, “let’s just keep going. Yearbook committee and such. We have to meet Percy, Nico, Will, Hazel, Frank, Reyna and Ann- Annabeth- right?”  
Leo and Jason exchanged glances. Piper, not one to be oblivious or blunt, caught the smirk on Leo’s face. And being as sharp as she was, she knew exactly what he was thinking.  
_I just tripped on Annabeth’s name._  
Yeah. Maybe she wasn’t oblivious, but she _sure_  as hell wasn’t the subtlest.  
“What?” She snapped. Jason raised his hands, silently asking for mercy.  
“You just... um... you know, stuttered. On Annabeth’s name.”  
“Almost like she’s got a crush on her, right?” Leo snickered. Piper rolled her eyes, discreetly clenching her fists around her bag straps and silently wondering where it would be legal to murder short, teenage boys.  
“Hilarious, Valdez. How’d your science class go today? You have that with Calypso, right?”  
Leo’s face exploded in colour, and he said nothing for a good few minutes. Piper nodded, satisfied. A moment without Leo’s nagging was a moment of peace; a rare occurrence, but bliss all the same.  
“Piper, you gotta do something about this,” Jason explained tiredly as the trio continued their walk down the hall. “You can’t just avoid Annabeth for the rest of time. She misses talking to you.”  
“Of _course_ she does.” Piper looked down at her feet, faking interest in her Doc Martens. She hated this subject. And she hated how right Jason was about needing to stop avoiding it.  
But Jason didn’t know about the ‘incident’ at Will Solace’s party. And what he didn’t know _didn’t_  hurt him.

“Annabeth wouldn’t care if you told her you had a crush on her, Pipes-”  
“Look, drop it, alright?” Piper burst, with much more venom in her words than she intended. Feeling guilty at Jason’s abrupt silence and toe-scuffing, she sighed. “Look, I have enough on my plate already. The move, Dad’s job, Mom showing up in my life again... it’s just too much to handle on its own. I can’t be hung up on this ‘liking Annabeth’ business. Not right now. Not until things have settled.”  
Jason nodded, but Piper saw the uncertainty in his eyes. She made a mental note to talk to him about it all later. Maybe, just _maybe_ , she’d tell him about the ‘incident’, too.  
“Aha! There they are!” Hazel Levesque exclaimed when Leo opened the door to the old, barely-ever-used classroom that smelled of musty basketballs and, for reasons Piper couldn’t explain, marijuana. “It’s about time, guys.”  
“Hey, Hazel. Sorry we’re late. Pipes ran into a wall.” Leo bounced into the room, his natural flair returning. Piper inwardly shrugged, surprised at how long he’d stayed quiet, and not all that bothered that he was talking again.  
“Why’d you do that?” Frank Zhang grinned from the other side of the room, where he was loading film into an old camera Piper ached to hold. It was an absolute _relic_ \- Bianca di Angelo had dug it up out of the art classroom, and given it to Frank as a birthday present a year ago. Piper had always admired its beauty, ever-present despite the camera probably being older than her.  
“Busy thinking about the move,” Piper lied, resisting the urge to yell out ‘I was busy thinking about when Annabeth stuck her tongue inside my mouth and we haven’t talked about it since!’, since that might not be deemed appropriate as an answer.

“Do you _have_ to move?” Hazel pouted. “We’ll miss you so much.”  
“Sorry, Hazel. Dad’s new job takes us there. I told you, I’ve been trying to convince him to stay, but...” Piper felt that way-too familiar lump rise in her throat, bringing with it a cascading waterfall of tears. She swallowed thickly. Talking about her move to Oklahoma was always difficult. She’d lived in New York her whole life- and now, her mother, who’d abandoned her since birth, had re-appeared, and coincidentally found ‘better work’ for Tristan McLean near her home.  
Yeah. Coincidence. Piper had her two cents on that- bullshit. She didn’t even want to talk to her mother, let alone live near her, and now that old hag was forcing her family to move.  
“Aw, it’s okay!” Hazel bounded forward and flung her arms around Piper. “Don’t cry! If you cry, I’ll cry, and then everybody will cry!”  
“It’s true,” Frank said, “nobody can keep their tears to themselves if Hazel can’t.”  
“Psh, okay, alright,” Piper giggled, blinking hard to rid herself of those stupid tears and holding Hazel’s shoulders. “Hazel! You’re squishing me!”  
“Get squished, then! It’s called affection.” Even as Hazel spoke, she wriggled away from Piper, shaking her wild, warm-toast-coloured hair off her face. Piper loved that colour, especially in Hazel’s hair: it made her look even cuter than usual. Tossing her bag over her shoulder, Piper jumped onto a nearby desk and swung her legs over the side, back and forth like a child’s swing set.  
“Well, look who finally decided to show up!”  
Piper’s heart plummeted straight to her toes. She looked up to the extra doorway that led to the print room, and yep, there she was, in all her glory; Annabeth Chase.  
“Hey, Annabeth.” Jason slung his bag onto a desk with a _thud_ , and glanced over at the tall, blonde goddess with a grin.  
Maybe goddess was overdoing it. Piper didn’t know. She was too busy pointedly arranging her cover design ideas perfectly, avoiding Annabeth’s eyes.  
“Hello, Jason. Leo. Pipes. Where were you guys?”  
“Piper ran into a wall!” Leo and Hazel chorused. Piper restrained herself from slamming her head into the desk beneath her, and instead resolved to mentally pleading to melt into the ground.  
“You ran into a wall?” Annabeth’s voice carried a hint of humour, ringing through the room like bells. Piper covered her face with her hands, wishing somebody would burst into the room and stab her.  
“I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she squeaked, praying her face would go back to its normal, brown tone before she had to look up. “Unfocused. Thinking about the move, you know?”  
Everything she said was sounding less and less casual by the second, and she wished she’d just shut up.  
Unfortunately, she did not.

“So how’s your day been, Annie? What did you do? Go on any dates?”  
Piper hissed at herself. Why the hell did that seem like a casual topic? What rational part of her thought that was a good idea?  
“Um... good? Nothing much, and no... I did not...” Piper raised her face out of her hands to see Annabeth’s cheeks had turned pink, and for a brief moment she felt a surge of relief that she wasn’t alone. “You?”  
“Yeah. Alright. No dates either.”  
Silence reigned. Not for the first time that day, Piper resisted the urge to get up and walk home without saying goodbye to anybody. Nobody said a word; the uncomfortable, awkward atmosphere hung low and thick like smog. Frank cleared his throat, but didn’t follow it up with anything.  
Suddenly, Piper’s guardian angel announced his presence.  
“Hey children!” Percy Jackson yelled and swept into the room, grabbing Annabeth by the waist, hoisting her up and carrying her to the table Piper was sat at. While Annabeth shrieked ‘put me down!’, Piper decided she owed Percy everything she had for interrupting that awful silence.  
“What’s with everybody being so quiet?” Percy asked, setting Annabeth down next to Piper. Annabeth elbowed him in the ribs.  
“I hate you.”  
“Didn’t answer my question.”  
“I was just being tired. Asking stupid questions. Sorry, Annabeth, I’m not myself.” Piper babbled, hoping Annabeth, smart as she was, wouldn’t notice the embarrassment in her tone.  
“Busy thinking about the move?” Percy squirmed in between Annabeth and Piper, earning annoyed ‘oof’s from both girls. “Or something else?”  
Piper pretended she didn’t see Percy wink after asking that.  
“The move. Now stop asking me questions.”  
There were a total of four people who knew about the ‘incident’. Piper, Annabeth, Percy and Will, who had walked in on the two girls making out when he was clearing the house. It had been _his_ party, after all.  
Piper wasn’t sure how Percy had found out. But she knew he didn’t mind. He and Annabeth had broken up _months_ before the party.  
Actually, Piper was _very_  unsure of how Percy found out. Though she counted Annabeth as somebody who knew, Chase had been rather drunk when she’d grabbed Piper by the arms and smashed her mouth onto hers. Extremely drunk. Way past the ‘I’ll still remember this’ stage of drunk. So unless Will had fucked up and said something, Piper had no way of knowing how Percy had found out about anything.

“Hello, we’re here, sorry we’re late!”  
Speak of the devil. Will Solace himself had just strode into the room, Nico di Angelo trailing behind him with a dumb smile on his face. Piper was beginning to feel like this day was just the opening to a bad teen romantic-comedy, with all the people walking in and announcing it loudly.  
Behind Nico, Reyna trudged in, braid plastered to her neck with a mixture of rain and sweat, her face and clothes covered in mud, her shoes just as dirty.  
“Holy shit, Reyna, what happened to you?” Piper asked, sliding off the table and plodding over to Reyna. Reyna sighed, batting away Piper’s hand, which she’d raised to brush mud out of her eyebrow.  
“Training. In case you couldn’t tell, it’s raining very heavily out there.”  
“Why were you training? Why have you finished? School ended, like, 15 minutes ago, and it’s a Wednesday. You guys train on Tuesdays.” Piper frowned.  
“‘Big game coming up!’. Coach Hedge thinks we’re underprepared or something, I don’t know. Called us all out of class to train for last period. He ended it early because Charlie saw lighting, and he didn’t want us to get electrocuted. He’s a strange one, Coach Hedge.” Reyna shrugged, her messenger bag sliding off her shoulder and falling to the ground.  
“Is nobody going to acknowledge my incredible entrance?” Will asked, shuffling his papers. “I planned it, you know.”  
“You _planned_  that?” Hazel cocked an eyebrow. “Seemed a little lame.”  
“Hazel Levesque, I am *hurt*!” Will planted a hand on his chest and pulled a face of mock offence. Nico rolled his eyes.  
“Tone it down, this is yearbook, not theatre. Save your dramatic tendencies for Friday afternoons.”  
A loud clap caught Piper’s attention. She turned away from Reyna, Will and Nico to see Annabeth standing on a desk, hands resting on her hips and feet at shoulder-width. Piper knew that stance. This girl meant _business_.  
“Alright, everybody, we’re nearing the end of Junior Year, and this yearbook is NOT going to make itself. I trust each of you competed the task I gave you?”  
Piper murmured something incomprehensible and gathered her cover designs. Will sidled up next to her with his papers.  
“Cover design, right?” He whispered. Piper nodded.  
“You?”  
“Interior design. Makes me sound like an architect or something.” Will thumbed through his sheets, poking his tongue out the corner of his mouth. “You got outerior, I got interior.”  
“Exterior, Will. Outerior isn’t a word.”  
Will ignored her.

“Of course.” Nico pulled a crumpled list from his bag. “Here: I decided on the ‘most likely’, like you asked.”  
“Why’s it crumpled?” Percy asked between bites of pizza. Piper had no idea where that food had come from, and she wasn’t sure she _wanted_  to know.  
“It’s been at the bottom of my bag for about a week now.”  
“Nico, did you nominate yourself for ‘most likely to have another emo phase’?” Piper asked, peering at the paper in Nico’s hands. Nico pushes her head away.  
“Obviously. Who else would you think for that category?” Nico glared at Leo. “Nice categories, by the way, Valdez. I especially liked the ‘most likely to drop out of high school, get the hottest girlfriend alive, then Calypso’s name written in brackets, and become an engineer’. You should become a professional categoriser.”  
“Thanks, Nico!” Leo beamed. Nico scoffed.  
“Miss nothing, do you? In case you were wondering, I nominated one person for that category, and it wasn’t you.”  
Annabeth snickered, taking the list from Nico with glee.  
“Well, I’m glad there are some sensible categories. Now I just have to get the school to vote for their favourite nominees. Percy, did you get that list of ‘best blanks’ I asked you for?”  
“Yup! Nominated as many as I thought matched what Hazel came up with.”  
“Good. Frank, Reyna?”  
“I have photos of the school at random points, like you asked.” Frank held up his camera with a shy smile. Reyna shrugged, and chucked a plastic folded full of photographs at Annabeth.  
“I did what I could. Taking shots of the teams was difficult, especially since I was a part of one. But they’re in this folder.”  
“Beautiful. Jason, Piper, Will, what about you?”  
“Done and dusted.” Will handed over his sheets.  
“I tried to do my best, collecting quotes,” Jason said quietly, sliding his folded up piece of paper across the desk. Annabeth nodded.  
And then it was Piper’s turn.  
_Don’t fuck this up, Mclean._  
“Cover designs!” Piper blurted, shoving her papers at Annabeth’s outstretched hands and dropping them on the table.  
_Nice going, loser, you did the one thing you told yourself not to do._  
“They’re great, Pipes.” Annabeth smiled kindly as she scooped up the designs.

An hour and a half (plus a meltdown from Leo after he spilled ink on his white shirt, Will tripping over his own feet and almost falling onto the printer, Reyna falling asleep after exhausting herself at training and Annabeth crying tears of disappointment when Leo begged her on his knees to keep his stupid categories) later, Piper was sitting on the stairs outside Athens High, kicking herself glumly for ruining her chances with Annabeth once again and thinking abut times in Oklahoma where she’d never get to have fun with the yearbook committee 

* * *

“You all good, Pipes?”  
Piper tilted her head back to see Will standing on the step above her, umbrella over his head, even though the rain had passed.  
“It’s not raining,” Piper said bluntly. Will shrugged, and climbed down next to her.  
“You seemed more off than usual today at yearbook,” Will said, leaning back on his elbows and squinting up at the downcast sky.  
Piper stared straight ahead.  
“Are you still dwelling on the dubbed ‘incident’?”  
Piper buried face into her knees and forced herself not to cry. Though she tried hard, tears leaked from her eyes anyway. _Pathetic_ , she scolded herself, y _ou cry too often, you know?_  
“C’mon, it’s okay, Pipes.” Piper felt Will’s arm loop around her shoulders. She leant into him, and wept softly. “She doesn’t hate you. I thought we discussed that?”  
“Then why did she run when I tried to ask her about it?” Piper groaned. “She was drunk. She probably didn’t remember. I tried to bring it up, she was appalled by what she’d done, so she ran.”  
“Big words-”  
“Shut up, Solace!”  
“I’m sorry.”  
Piper felt Will’s arm tense. She shook her head.  
“No, don’t be. I just lashed out. Look, I know you’re bad at staying on the one subject. I’m sorry I got mad.” Piper shuffled further into Will, shivering as the rain started again. Will angled the umbrella above the pair of them.  
“You might be right about her not remembering,” he stared slowly, “but I don’t think you’re right about her hating what she’d done. I think she just panicked. You can sort this out, you know. Try to talk to her again.”  
“I can’t-”  
“You might be moving away for good soon. Every day you spend shying away from this situation is another day of wasted potential.” Will squeezed Piper’s shoulder. “You’re a wonderful, wonderful person, Pipes. Annabeth could never hate you. Nobody could. So what do you say?”

Piper sat quietly for a while, pondering this. Will was right; she might leave and never come back at the end of this semester. And she wanted to confront Annabeth about this situation before she lost contact with her forever.  
Jeez, Will Solace sure knew how to get her confidence up.  
“Alright. I’ll give it a shot.”  
Will whooped in joy, laughing even though Piper could *see* the rain seeping through his shoes and into his socks.  
“That’s more like it! Tomorrow, yeah?”  
Piper nodded, jittery through her whole body.  
“I’ll try my best. We’ll see what happens.”  
“That’s the way.”

 


	2. Rain & Soup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper's sick of home, and how unwelcoming it feels now that her mother's taken over things; so to lift her spirits, she heads to the Jackson household. Unfortunately, even there, Piper can't escape the Annabeth Chase Issue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ladies, gents and all those in between, this is what we as writers call: I still barely know what I'm doing.

**-Piper-**

Home was a hundred times worse than school.

Three months ago, Piper never would have dreamed she’d be uttering that sentence; but now, she was stumbling through the door, dripping wet and frustrated with herself, and the house no longer felt like ‘home’.  
Everything she’d loved about it, everything that made it warm and happy, was gone. The bookshelf full of photos of Piper and her dad, the kettle that moaned instead of whistled because Piper broke it when she was eleven, and the (now deflated) balloon that Dad had left up since Piper’s thirteenth birthday because he’d never been bothered to take it down. It was all gone. Piper knew she’d see the photos again in Oklahoma, but her mother would surely push them out of sight, too ‘messy’ for her. Plus, the kettle and balloon now rested in a box labelled ‘garbage’. To Aphrodite, a broken kettle and a deflated balloon held no value, even though they held memories. No new kettle could make the same stupid noise that made Piper and her dad piss themselves laughing every morning, and no full balloons could create the same challenge of ‘who can hit it the furthest’ between the father and daughter.  
To Aphrodite, nothing mattered if it didn’t look pretty.  
Piper didn’t think any name could suit her witch of a mother more and less at the same time. As far as Piper knew, the Greek goddess Aphrodite stood for real love and healthy relationships, at the same time as she stood for making everything about her and being jealous of anybody who was remotely prettier than her. And while Piper’s mother was nowhere near ‘real love’, she was _definitely_ way too self-centred.

“I’m home!” Piper called out wearily. Her voice echoed through the empty, cold house, and she tried not to think about how soon the familiar smell of burnt toast and raspberry cream would no longer be a part of her life.  
As Piper had expected, nobody answered. She suspected her father was on the phone to Aphrodite right now, gushing to her about things he certainly didn’t need to gush about.  
“I’m home!” Piper yelled again, her voice breaking with strain and emotion. This time, she heard footsteps thud slowly down the staircase.  
“Hello, Pipes.” Tristan Mclean appeared at the base of the stairs, phone to his ear, just like Piper knew would happen. “Yes, it’s Piper. Would you like to say hi to your mother, Pipes?”  
“No,” Piper said simply, hanging her bag on the hook next to the door.  
_That hook will be gone from your life soon if you can’t convince Dad to stay.  
_ “Are you sure?” Tristan frowned. Piper nodded, forced a smile, then shuffled into the kitchen. She heard her father go back to sweet-talking like he’d never seen his daughter, and she blinked back tears.  
She missed her real dad so much. The dad that made her peppermint hot chocolate when she was upset, who left packages of chocolates and hot water bottles at Piper’s door when she closed herself in, cramps forcing her to stay in bed all day. The dad that sat close with her and watched movies every Saturday, and they stuffed bowls of popcorn into their mouths. _That_ was the dad she knew- not this closed-off, distant father that was obsessed with Aphrodite.

Piper sighed, barely conscious of the pasta she was reheating. Maybe she could ride her bike to Percy’s house- Mrs Jackson was always happy to have her when her father was busy with filming, and she liked taking her mind off things by smashing Percy at Wii Sports.  
Yeah. That sounded like a plan.  
Piper mixed in some pasta sauce that had been left in the pantry, and closed the container lid. Percy liked pasta- she could share with him, and maybe for a minute she could feel at ease again.  
Piper raced up the stairs to her room to change, and shoved the pasta, a handful of CDs and some cash into a small backpack.  
“I’m going to Percy’s!” she called, giving herself false hope her father would notice.  
“Okay, Pipes, do what you like!” Her father yelled back, sounding like he was in a trance-like state.  
The voices were hollow against the walls. Piper hated how empty this house had become.  
She wandered blindly through the dark garage, hands reaching out to search for her bicycle as she stumbled over boxes. Finally, after two stubbed toes and three ‘I wish these lights still worked!’, Piper found her bike, dragged it outside, and started off on her way to Percy’s. Rain still sprinkled on her, but rays of sunshine were peeking through the clouds, making the road sparkle and glitter likea child’s craft project.  
Piper reached the Jackson household as the sunrays disappeared and the rain started to pour heavier. At this point, the weather was about as predictable Piper’s life- a perfect mirror of the inside of her head.  
The door was heavy and wooden beneath her knuckles as she knocked once, twice, thrice. It cracked open, and Sally Jackson’s beautifully aging face met Piper.  
“Oh, hello Piper. We haven’t seen you for a while.” Sally smiled, then rubbed a piece of Piper’s damp hair between her fingers. “Did you really ride in the rain?”  
“Dad was too busy gushing to Aphrodite to take me,” Piper grumbled, leaning into Sally’s hand. Ever since she’d been a little kid in the Summer holidays, and her father had been too swamped with work to look after her, she’d been coming over to the Jackson household. Recently, she’d been too busy herself packing for her move, but she’d definitely forgotten how much Sally felt like her real mother.

“Oh.” Sally’s face fell into a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry, Pipes. I know how much you dislike your mother.”  
“Yeah, well…” Piper shrugged. “Not much I can do about it.”  
“Come in, dear, before you get even wetter.” Sally ushered Piper inside. “I’ll get you a hot drink and a warm towel. Percy’s in the living room.”  
“Thank you, Sally,” Piper said, smiling. She’d really missed this feeling.  
“Percy! Piper’s here!”  
Percy happened to be lying on the couch, watching some TV show Piper had never seen before, but he perked up upon hearing his mother.  
“Hey, Pipes! I wasn’t expecting you!” Percy swung his legs over the side of the couch and sat up properly. “Come sit with me, I’m watching _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_.”  
“I have no idea what that is,” Piper laughed. She fell back onto the sofa, and Percy nodded.  
“Yeah, originally I just had it playing in the background while I tried to do this stupid English essay, but… I lost focus.”  
“Gah, I still haven’t started it,” Piper groaned, “I forgot about it, to be honest.”  
“What soup do you guys want?” Sally shouted from the kitchen. Percy grinned.  
“Chicken noodle!” He yelled back. Piper scoffed.  
“Seriously, _what_ is your obsession with soup?” She asked. Percy shrugged.  
“I don’t know, I just like it.” He turned back to the TV, hands fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “While you’re here, I meant to ask you- did Will talk to you about Annabeth?”

Piper’s stomach flipped inside-out, and she pursed her lips. She should have known Will and Percy would be teaming up to resolve things.  
“You and Will working together to get me to talk to her about this?” She muttered, staring straight ahead. Percy paused.  
“Well… yeah. We think you’ll be a lot more focused if you just try and sort things out with her.” Another pause. “It might make the prospect of moving easier for you.”  
Piper curled her fingers around the blanket she’d picked up from the armchair next to them.  
“I don’t want to go,” she whispered.  
“I know. We don’t want you to go, either. But… maybe you’ll feel a tiny bit better if you can sort this problem out before you leave.”  
“I haven’t told her I’m moving.” Piper could feel the stupid lump coming back in her throat, and she tried to gulp it down. “I don’t think anybody has. Hazel and Frank know I want to be the one that tells people, and the rest of you know that I like her. Which means you let me suffer and tell her myself.”  
“We’re very caring like that.”

Piper and Percy lapsed into silence. Piper stayed gazing at the TV, not really paying attention, and mostly thinking about Annabeth, and Annabeth’s dimpled smile, and Annabeth’s soft hands, and the way Annabeth kissed her at Will’s party.  
She’d tried to bring it up before. It was maybe a week after the party, and they’d been the only ones working on the yearbook that day. Percy and Jason were sick, Hazel and Nico were celebrating Bianca’s birthday, Leo was on detention (surprise, surprise), Frank was visiting his grandmother, and Reyna was busy training on the football team. She and Annabeth had been talking light-heartedly but Piper was walking on eggshells, careful not to say the wrong thing and ruin whatever was left.  
Then the curiosity became too much, and she asked the question that had been lying on her tongue for days now.  
“Did you mean to kiss me?”  
Piper had watched Annabeth freeze, pen in hand. She looked up, her grey eyes blown up with shock, her curly, blonde hair falling in her face. Piper’s heart had skipped a beat.  
“Excuse me?” Annabeth had whispered. Piper cleared her throat.  
“I said, did you mean to kiss me? At Will’s party?”  
Annabeth said nothing, red-cheeked, but her mouth had opened and closed like a goldfish’s. Then she stood up abruptly, grabbed her bag, and strode out of the room without another word.

“Perce,” Piper started, and scared herself with how quiet her voice was. “How did you find out? About what happened between me and Annabeth, I mean.”  
Percy ran a hand through his mop of black hair, and shrugged.  
“Well... when I was coming back from swim team training, I heard you talking to Will, and I’d been meaning to ask you about where you’d went to during the party anyway, so I figured it was a good time. When I found you guys, you were talking about what happened, and I pieced two and two together, and… yeah. Figured it out. I left before I could say anything stupid.”  
“Soup,” Sally announced, placing two bowls on the coffee table in front of Piper and Percy. “Eat it while it’s hot.”  
“Thanks, Mom,” Percy said, while Piper thanked her herself. When Sally had disappeared to her study, Percy continued. “Look, I probably should have confronted you about it earlier. That was, what, two days after the party? And I didn’t tell you I knew for another month. I’m sorry.”  
“Why didn’t you?” Piper asked, blowing on her soup.  
“Because it was only a week after Annabeth and I had broken up.”  
Piper set her bowl down slowly. It had never occurred to her how short the time period between Annabeth and Percy’s breakup and Will’s party had been.  
“Oh… well then, _I_ should be the one that’s sorry. I probably shouldn’t have kissed her back.”  
Percy rolled his eyes.  
“Man, don’t worry about that,” he snorted, “we weren’t dating anymore, so she could do what she wanted. Plus, I’m pretty sure I kissed Jason full on the mouth for a dare that night too, so that’s just hypocritical of me. Things are fine. I just didn’t want you to think I was being pretentious and telling you not to kiss my ex. Annabeth and I had it a long time com-”

“Wait, wait, wait-” Piper raised her hands and pushed them down and up again, signalling for Percy to stop. “ _You_ kissed _Jason_?”  
“It was a dare!” Percy protested. “While you and Annabeth were making out upstairs-”  
“Hey!”  
“-the rest of us started playing truth or dare, and Leo dared me to kiss Jason! Ask him!”  
“Who, Leo or Jason?” Piper giggled.  
“Pff, not Leo. Dude was drunk _as_. He won’t remember a thing. _I_ barely remember it. Ask Jason. Or Hazel, she was sober. Maybe even Frank.”  
“What about Nico?”  
“ _Please_ don’t ask him. He’ll tell you it went on for longer than a minute.”  
“Oddly specific, Jackson.”  
Percy spluttered and stammered, face growing pinker and pinker. Piper laughed, a whole, genuine laugh that she hadn’t heard come from herself for a while.  
“How long did you kiss him for?” She asked between hiccups.  
“I don’t know,” Percy mumbled, eating his soup to avoid Piper’s eyes. “I think Reyna timed it for blackmail.”

They bantered like that for so long, Piper almost forgot about her problems. At ten o’clock, Sally finally decided that Piper needed to either pick up clothes from home to stay the night or go home, period.  
“I’ll drive you,” Percy offered, pulling his jumper over his head. “It’s pouring. Get your bike, I’ll chuck it in the backseat. Now let’s see if I can find my keys…”  
Percy plodded to his room and Piper heard a distinct, ‘I swear I left them here this afternoon!’ before a metallic _clang_. Sally sighed.  
“He’s a wild character, my son.” She dusted her hands on her jeans. “How’s your father, Piper? Ready for the move?”  
“ _He_ is, he’s been ready since Aphrodite appeared back in our lives.” Piper scowled. “I hate her. She’s turned my father into a gushing, no-time-for-nonsense, boring man.”  
“Things will get better, dear,” Sally said, gently squeezing Piper’s shoulder. “They always do.”  
“I’m trying to convince him to stay. I’m running out of time.” Piper looked down. “I don’t want to go. I can’t leave everybody I’ve ever known behind like he wants me to.”  
Sally nodded, and pulled Piper in for a gentle hug. Piper lifted her arms to encircle her, burying her face in her shirt.  
“Sally…” Piper took a deep breath. “If something happened to you- like, something really surprising but good -and it started to make things awkward with a friend you’ve had since forever, what would you do?”  
“That depends,” Sally said, pulling Piper away to look her in the eyes. “Has it happened between you and the friend?”  
“Yes.”

Sally smiled softly, the skin around her eyes wrinkling.

“Talk to them. Tell them how it’s making you feel. Get a better understanding of why this has happened.”  
Piper nodded, expecting nothing less.  
“What if… what if you _tried_ to talk to them about it before, but she- they just ran away from you?”  
“They’re probably just nervous, Piper. Make sure they know this is something you _need_ to talk about. Alright?”  
“Alright.”  
“I found them!” Percy slid into the hallway, car keys in hand. “Okay, Pipes, get your bike in the car and I’ll drop you home.”  
“Thank you for having me,” Piper said, almost by habit now. Sally ruffled her hair.  
“Anytime, dear. We love having you over.”  
“It’s the only time I get soup,” Percy said, opening the door. “Come on, Mclean!”  
Piper hugged Sally once more, then trailed after Percy, helping him shove her bike into the backseat of his car and shielding herself from the rain as she hurried into the passenger seat.  
“Alright, I know this Annabeth situation is stressing you out, so do you want to stop by Reyna’s place? I already told her to start making hot chocolates.”  
Piper sat up straight.  
“Reyna’s making us hot chocolates?”  
“Yeah! I know, she’s the best at it. We’ll just drop by, get the chocolates, and go home. She won’t mind.”

And so, the unlikely pair blasted grunge pop music through the radio, sung along so loud it drowned out the sound of pouring rain, and pulled out of the driveway, problems forgotten and hot chocolates waiting.

* * *

  **-Tristan-**

“I don’t think she wants to talk to me.”  
Tristan Mclean winced, and cradled his phone with both hands.  
“Of course she does, dear. She’s just busy. She had to… go study.”  
“Where?” Aphrodite’s voice crackled through the phone.  
“At her friend Percy’s place.”  
“Who’s Percy?” Aphrodite questioned, “Are they dating?”  
“Not as far as I’m aware, dear.” A javelin of irritation swung through Tristan’s head. If it wasn’t bad enough that Aphrodite had abandoned their daughter for her whole life, she couldn’t even be bothered to ask about Piper’s preference in who she loved. Tristan wished she’d be more interested in Piper as a person, rather than a trophy to say ‘look who I had a child with! The famous Tristan Mclean!’ and the perfect model she wanted Piper to be.  
“Good. Have you told her what she’ll be doing once she arrives in Oklahoma?”  
“Not yet. I don’t think she’ll take kindly to it. You can surprise her when we arrive.”  
Guilt ran hot through Tristan’s blood. He wanted so badly for Piper to be able to do what she wished, and not what Aphrodite wanted, but prices had to be paid if he wanted her to see her mother again.  
“She’ll be happy about it, Tristan,” Aphrodite assured in her sickly-sweet voice, too high to be natural. “Every teenage girl wants to model for magazines.”

“I’m not too sure you know all that much about teenage girls if that’s what you think,” Tristan snapped, “Piper doesn’t want to be a model, she wants to stay with her friends and be a part of their yearbook committee. She wants to go skateboarding with them on Friday evenings and go to their parties, and if she comes home _clearly_ not sober, then what’s it for me to judge her for? I was just like her at her age. Hell, I’m sure _you_ were, too.”  
“Those friends are bad influences.” There was a fiery determination in Aphrodite’s voice. “Especially that Annabeth Chase child.”  
“I see nothing wrong with Annabeth,” Tristan said coldly, “she’s a wonderful, intelligent girl.”  
“My daughter will not be seen with a low-life, ‘politically-correct’ girl who cares nothing about true love!” Aphrodite burst, spitting ‘politically-correct’ as if it was an insult.  
Downstairs, Tristan heard the front door click, and Piper’s voice yell ‘I’m home!’ with a bit of bubbly excitement. Tristan’s heart split clean in two. When they moved, he’d be taking her from everything that kept her happy.  
“Well, your daughter is home, and since I clearly won’t be spending too much time with her in Oklahoma, I’d better go see that she still wants to be around me.”  
Silence. Tension. A sniffle.

“You know I love you, right, Tristan?”  
“Of course, dear,” Tristan muttered, exasperated. One the other end of the line, Aphrodite hung up, and Tristan hung his head.  
_What had he gotten himself into?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, I appreciate feedback as much as I appreciate Rosa Diaz. and if there are any spelling errors, don't @ me, I'm a simple young lad trying my best and typing too fast for my own good.  
> Q of the chapter: what's the hardest confrontation you've ever had to do?


	3. As Always

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oof... lot's of tears........  
> (given up on summaries lmaoooo)

**-Piper-**

“It’s really not that hard to just, you know, _walk_ to school.”  
Piper scoffed, folding her arms and staring out the window. Next to her, Thalia Grace continued, flicking on her blinker and tapping her foot on the car floor.  
“I mean, you live within walking distance. _Both_ of you. And it would be good for your legs. Build some muscle, yeah?”  
“Thalia, we live two miles away,” Jason grumbled from the backseat, “you live _with_ me! You know this!”  
“It’s not _that_ far.” Thalia glanced up in the rear-view mirror, scowling. “Stupid first-timer driver. He looks about thirteen.”  
“Probably is,” Piper muttered.  
“Anyway, I run seven miles a day. Surely you can _walk_ two miles just to school,” Thalia finished.  
“It’ll take us too long,” Piper complained, fidgeting with her watch strap and forcibly not thinking about what she was going to talk about today.  
“Yeah, Piper’s right! Besides, it’s on your way to the gym at a good time for you to start your shift.” Jason pointed left. “Turn here.”  
“I know where I’m going, Jason. I’ve been picking up Piper and Leo for two years now.” Thalia turned left, rolling her eyes. “Speaking of Valdez, when are you going to ask him out?”  
“I- what?” Jason spluttered. Piper twisted around to grin at him. His face had gone redder than a rose and he’d frozen, sitting rigid.

“Oh, Thalia knows what’s going on.” She mocked deep though, stroking her chin. “You know, maybe making out with Percy in front of him isn’t going to help.”  
“How did you find out about that?” Jason exclaimed. “You were- not there!”  
“Percy told me when I went to his yesterday afternoon.” Piper turned back around. Thalia was stifling her laughter, trying her best to focus on the road.  
“You made out with Percy?” She said, voice wavering through the effort to remain stoic. Jason groaned loudly.  
“It was a _dare_! From Leo himself!”  
“Yeah?” Piper clutched her stomach, giggling hard once more. “Dares don’t usually last longer for a minute.”  
“Shut your trap, Piper.”  
“He gets that expression from you, Thalia,” Piper pointed out, wiping away tears of laughter as Thalia snickered and pulled into Leo’s driveway. The elfish, Hispanic boy was sitting in the driveway, tinkering with pipe cleaners with a concentrated frown on his face.  
“He looks kinda cute when he’s focusing,” Jason muttered under his breath. Piper rolled her eyes, grinning.  
“I’m telling him you said that.”  
“If you do, I’ll tell him about the time your drunk ass said you wanted to kiss Annabeth longer than you’ve ever kissed somebody.”

“When did I say that?” Piper asked. Jason shrugged.  
“Will’s party. Before you disappeared…” An expression of realisation dawned on Jason’s face, and Piper’s whole world slowed to a halt. Jason wasn’t _really_ meant to find out about the dubbed ‘incident’. “Actually, come to think about it, Annabeth disappeared too…”  
“Psh.” Thalia pressed her palm against the car horn, and Piper jumped, watching as Leo did the same thing. “Age-old news. I was _waiting_ for you guys to get together.”  
Piper stared out the window, quietly pondering whether she would get away with murdering the Grace siblings.  
“Did… did it not go well?” Jason asked, sensing Piper’s discomfort. Piper half-shrugged.  
“Dunno. We’ll find out today.” Piper closed her eyes, listening to the car door open and slam in the back.  
“Hey, Jase.” Leo’s voice sounded low and mildly glum. Piper briefly wondered if things were okay with him. “Pipes. Thalia.”  
“Hey, Leo,” Jason greeted his friend, and turned back to Piper. “What do you mean?”  
“I’ve tried to talk to her about it all before, but she just ran away. Like, _literally_ ran. I’m going to try again today.”  
“Best of luck, Piper.” Thalia said, rolling back to the highway. She slid her sunglasses onto her eyes. “Just stay calm. Don’t freeze up.”  
“Wait, what’s going on?” Leo asked. His voice still sounded a little sad. Piper explained her situation, feeling oddly lighter now that she’d told her two best friends. She’d dreaded the moment she’d have to tell them, but now that she had, relief was flooding through her veins. It felt so much better than she’d ever anticipated she could feel.

Leo said nothing for a short while, which was so strange for him that Piper had to turn around again to check he was still alive. And he was, but he had a crestfallen glaze over his eyes and in the corner of his lips.  
“Leo? You good.”  
“What? Yeah. I’m fine.” Leo shook himself, but he remained slouchy and unsettled. “I just… at Will’s party? I don’t… I don’t even _remember_ you going off.”  
“You were pretty out of it, dude,” Jason assured Leo. “I barely remember, either.”  
Leo looked down, and turned back to face the front. His head hung. Something in Piper’s chest warned her that this wasn’t the Leo she knew and loved.  
“We’re almost here,” Thalia announced quietly, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.  
Piper slunk into the car seat, picking up her school bag and cradling it against her chest. She knew Leo wasn’t really as happy as he made himself out to be- there was always going to be a sense of anguish in him _somewhere_. His childhood had proven that not all was well in his mind. Piper was _aware_ of the constant jitteriness in him, partially from his ADHD, but partially from the sense that he was kicked from foster home to foster home. Leo always looked ready to jump up and run at a moment’s notice, despite being in a foster home that cared about him now. Piper guessed it was a carry-on sort of thing from every traumatic experience he’d had in his childhood, from his mother dying in a machinery explosion, to getting bullied in homes that should have loved him like he was their own.  
Piper _knew_ all of this, and yet, seeing Leo so quiet and distant was like seeing a fish drowning. It simply shouldn’t have been happening. She’d seen him cry, and lash out, especially when his pet lizard Festus had been sick. But seeing him _quiet_? It was uncomfortable. It was anxiety-inducing, particularly considering how faraway his eyes looked.  
Piper wondered if that was what it had been like to see her so quiet and dispatched after learning she was moving away.

“Alright, get out. All of you.” Thalia pulled into the parking lot, taking the doors off childlock. It had been a joke to turn it on that started when Leo forgot to close his door properly and almost fell out of the car onto the highway. “And Valdez?”  
Leo looked up. Piper’s organs shrunk into themselves. He looked so much like a kicked puppy.  
“What?” Leo murmured. Thalia’s eyebrows knitted together and met in the middle.  
“Smile. Whatever’s going on with you, it’ll get better. I’ll pick you guys up this afternoon so you don’t have to take the bus, okay?”  
Jason cracked a smile.  
“Look at that,” he chirped, sliding out of the car. “She has a soft spot after all.”  
“Get out and shut up before I change my mind.”  
Piper watched as Thalia pulled out and sped away, windows down and short hair rippling in the wind.  
“Hey, Leo,” she turned to her short friend, searching for something in his eyes that might betray why he was currently so upset. “You know you can tell us anything, don’t you?” Leo didn’t reply. He pushed his toe into the ground, glaring down at it as if it was the source of every worst thing in the world.  
“Not that you have to, though,” Piper added hurriedly, “but if you want, you _can_. We’re your friends. You can trust us.”  
Leo looked up. His brown eyes were glazed with tears, and he nodded feverishly.  
“I know,” he said, voice gravelly. Piper suspected he’d been crying. Her spirits lift, like maybe he was ready to tell them and they’d be able to help. But to her disappointment, Leo sighed and shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter, anyway. Nothing’s wrong.”  
“But-”  
“Good luck with Annabeth, Pipes.” Leo adjusted his bag, and shouldered into himself, trudging away. “See you this afternoon, Jase. I have to go meet Calypso, we’re working on a science project.”  
And then he was gone, disappearing into the crowd of students before either Piper or Jason could call out to him.

“What’s up with _him_?” Piper hissed, much harsher than she intended to. Jason winced, and she immediately felt guilty again.  
_I can’t do anything right. Not lately, anyway._  
“Maybe he didn’t get any sleep?” Jason offered, sounding unsure. Piper hugged herself, looking down.  
“Yeah… maybe…”  
She didn’t believe it. Leo always got sleep. Even if he was working on a project for himself, and he forgot to eat or drink water, or even forgot to talk to somebody that _wasn’t_ made of scraps of metal and screws, Leo would _always_ remember to sleep.  
Whatever. If he didn’t want to talk, he didn’t want to talk. Leo was stubborn- Piper and Jason would just have to wait until he was ready to speak to them.  
Piper and Jason weaved through the mass of students standing in and around the campus, gossiping and laughing even though it was Thursday and they still had another two days before they were free. Annabeth, Percy, Nico, Will, Hazel, Reyna and Frank were sitting were the group was usually situated- beneath a large beach tree at a picnic table. From what Piper could see, all of them were grinning, and Piper’s heart yearned to feel as light and happy as they did- no move to think about, no unrequited crushes, no best friend that looked like he was going to burst into tears at any given moment.  
Unaware of the lies Piper was feeding them, like they were tiny cats searching for salmon and she was giving them cardboard in the shape of a fish.

Piper had told Leo, Jason and Thalia about the real reason she was moving to Oklahoma- her mother, roping them back into her life. But as far as the rest of the group was aware, Piper’s father’s job was forcing them to move. Piper didn’t want to tell them that her mother had re-appeared and that it was a bad thing, because she knew half of them would just feel angry at her for not feeling grateful.  
Well. She _assumed_ they’d be angry. She wasn’t too sure. But she also didn’t want to risk it.  
Percy was one of the only ones lucky enough to have both of his parents in his life; he spent every third week at his father’s place, since he was usually so busy with work and Percy preferred his mother’s side of the family, anyway. Will was the only other one that knew both of his parents well- his mother and father lived together, in a large house with each of his siblings, and he was humble about it. Annabeth’s mother lived somewhere in Europe, and though they were on speaking terms, the last time either of them had contacted each other was when Annabeth was nine and her mother had been berating her for getting a detention. Nico and Hazel’s father was nice enough (though slightly distant) and they and Bianca all lived with him, but both of their mothers had died when they were young. Frank lived with his grandmother, not knowing where his father was and his mother stuck fighting in a classified location for the US army. Even Reyna lived distantly, residing with her older sister Hylla after escaping their abusive father and failing to track down their mother.  
Though Jason and Leo didn’t have fulfilling family relationships with their parents, either (Jason barely _knew_ his father despite him being the only parent in his life, and Leo lived in a foster home), both of them knew how irritating Aphrodite had been. It was hard to keep it from Thalia, too, since Jason confided everything with her and Piper trusted her with her life, anyway.

“Good morning, troopers.” Frank spotted the pair first, and waved up at them, his other hand gently holding Hazel’s hand. Despite everything, Piper’s heart swelled for them- they were so happy together, and they were such a nice couple.  
“Hey, Frank.” Piper watched as Jason plastered a smile on his face. She knew it was fake, but it was comforting to see that at least _he_ was able to grit his teeth and grin.  
“Hey, Piper,” somebody at the back of the table greeted. Piper wasn’t sure if it was Will or Nico, since the pair of them were pressed so close against each other’s side they looked like they were joined at the hip. Such had become a common occurrence, lately, and usually Piper would tease them (‘are you _sure_ you guys aren’t dating?’), but today she felt too rained-on and glum to even bother. Looking up, she could see a crease in both of the boys’ brows.  
_Nico doesn’t know, though.  
Does he?  
_ “Hello,” Piper murmured, sitting down slowly next to Annabeth. The smell of sugarplums drifted off Annabeth, and Piper’s stomach flipped.  
“Hey,” Annabeth whispered, “what’s got you so down in the dumps today?”  
“Um…” Piper felt her throat tighten, and opposite her, Percy’s toe nudged her shin. She resisted the urge to kick him in the crotch beneath the table. “I don’t know. Leo seemed pretty out of it this morning, and he wouldn’t talk about it, so… I guess I’m worried.”  
It wasn’t a lie. Most of Piper’s bad mood stemmed from her concern for Leo.  
“That sucks,” Annabeth mumbled. Piper almost jumped out of skin when she felt a smooth, warm hand that most _definitely_ belonged to Annabeth come to rest on her arm.  
“Yeah.”

Piper drew in a deep breath, and turned to face Annabeth. Her grey eyes pierced the atmosphere with a kind but cold gaze.  
“Can I talk to you? Like… not here?”  
Annabeth’s mouth fell open slightly, but she recovered quickly.  
“Yeah, of course.”  
Piper stood up and tugged lightly on Annabeth’s hand. Annabeth followed the gesture, getting to her feet and trailing after Piper as she skittered away from the picnic table. Out of the corner of her eye, Piper saw Will give her a subtle thumbs up, and Percy give a not-so-subtle wink. Jason smiled encouragingly.  
Piper led Annabeth to a quiet spot just far away enough from the beach tree that the loud chatter had turned to background noise. Her heart was beating as hard as she’d ever felt it beat, and her head swam.  
“So-” Piper swallowed the nerves rising in her chest. “I wanted- I mean-”  
“Just breathe, Pipes.” Annabeth spoke with a soothing voice, and her calm tone just made Piper feel even more tense.  
“When- okay. At Will’s party… you… I mean…” Piper stopped, seeing how pale Annabeth had gone. She forced herself to remember Sally’s advice, and pushed on. “You kissed me. Like, _hard_. And for a long-ass time.”  
Annabeth said nothing, but Piper could see her hands shaking.  
“Do you remember that?” Piper continued. Annabeth breathed in shakily.  
“Not really…” she whispered, and Piper had to strain to hear her. Her lungs collapsed into themselves and crushed her heart.  
“Okay… well, you did. And I… I wanted to ask you if you meant it, but… I guess you can’t really answer that anymore.”  
Annabeth shook her head and looked down at her folded arms. Piper heard her inhale sharply, and exhale with the gentlest, slightest ‘oh’.  
“I mean, it’s just that-”  
“Stop.” Annabeth dug her fingers into her arms, never looking back up. “Just stop.”  
Piper felt that stupidly familiar spike behind her eyes, and not for the first time, bullied herself for crying so easily.  
“I don’t… I’m sorry, Piper.”

Piper didn’t reply, afraid that if she opened her mouth she’d just weep too loudly to say anything.  
She stood in her self-pity and awkwardness, just wishing she could disappear into thin air. She felt so utterly, completely _crushed_ \- she’d done what everybody had told her to do, and now it had landed her in tragedy and heartbreak. Will was wrong. Percy was wrong. Sally was wrong, Jason was wrong, Leo was wrong and Thalia was wrong. She wanted to be furious at them, but couldn’t haul herself out of her misery enough to feel anything else.  
Eventually, she heard Annabeth’s footsteps walk away, and her hopes shrivelled to nothing. The worst had happened- she’d ruined a friendship she might never be able to patch up, let alone before she moved to Oklahoma. Piper sobbed silently, looking away from the table and hoping the others would ignore her.  
Her hopes were useless.  
“Pipes?”  
Piper squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the voice.  
“I’m… guessing it didn’t go too well.”  
_Shut up. This is your fault._  
“Go away, Will.” The threat came out too watery and weak, and it was Piper’s breaking point. She buried her face into her hands and cried quietly, feeling hot tears pool between her fingers and mentally kicking herself for being so vulnerable.  
“I’m sorry. This… it’s my fault.”  
Piper sobbed in retaliation, and stumbled forward. At this point, she couldn’t care less that Will was half the reasons she was in this mess. She just wanted a hug from somebody warm, somebody to smooth her hair and promise her that things would get better.

“Oh, hey…” Piper felt Will’s arms sling around her, rubbing her back. “Look, this… it’ll work itself out.”  
“Before I move to Oklahoma?” Piper croaked. “I don’t have time, Will.”  
“I’ll help. Er- well, I know you probably don’t want any other help from me, but…”  
Will’s voice faded into nothingness as Piper blocked him out.  
She didn’t care.  
She’d ruined everything.  
_As always._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q of the chapter- have you ever fallen in love?  
> feedback is welcomed  
> also if there are spelling mistakes I'm sorry I'm just lame and I don't check my work.


	4. Chiudi la Bocca - Shut Your Mouth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it is common knowledge that I Love the Hades kids and you should forever count on them to be a main part of this fic. also for those of you who saw the solangelo and valgrace tags, worry not! they're coming soon.

******-Piper-**

“Cheer up, Pipes, it’s Friday!”  
Piper pretended she couldn’t hear Hazel, and pressed her pen down harder. At the front of the class, Drew Tanaka rambled in a bored voice about her essay, flicking through slides with the teacher’s pointer and sitting cross-legged on the desk (despite the teacher’s obvious annoyance). Faking interest in the presentation, Piper refused to look to her left, where Hazel sat squirming, eager to finish the day.  
“And, I mean, we’re all hanging out at mine tonight, and I have a line-up of movies ready, plus Bianca bought us a ton of snacks, and it’ll be great.”  
“Is Annabeth going to be there?” Piper mumbled quietly and subtly from the side of her mouth, drawing random patterns in her open book with the end of her pen.  
“Well… yes. The whole group will be there. But if you’d like, Frank and I can keep her busy. You won’t have to talk to her.”  
Piper groaned. Drew’s eyes skittered over her, and she faltered in her presentation. Piper’s heart clenched, and she covered her mouth, shaking her head, but before Drew could take the hint and continue as if nothing had happened, the teacher’s head snapped to glare in Piper’s direction. Piper gulped.  
“Something to say?” The teacher rasped. Piper hated his voice. It sounded like a truck grinding glass into gravel. “Mclean? Did you hear me?”

“No, sir. Nothing.” Piper eyed Drew, who looked smugly uncomfortable- a very Drew thing to look like. “Sorry, Drew.”  
“No problems, Piper,” Drew drawled, and continued with her slideshow. “Of course, we can’t have expected Julius Caesar _not_ to have deserved being stabbed. He _did_ do some pretty shitty things in his life…”  
Piper zoned out once more. If she had have thought she was distant and unfocused _before_ Thursday’s unfortunate rejection, it was _nothing_ compared to how she felt now. She tried to be involved in everything, and she tried to join in her friends’ conversations, but all had been deemed too difficult. Piper’s brain continued to remind her that she was moving shortly, leaving everything nice she’d ever had behind, and she’d never get to fix her friendship with Annabeth.  
Annabeth seemed to be avoiding her, though Piper couldn’t really be _too_ sure, since she was going out of her way not to talk to the other girl, anyway. Navigating the school was like walking on eggshells- every step she took was calculated and cautious, taking routes Annabeth would never walk through and bringing up topics Annabeth would never be interested in.  
Percy had approached her, Jason trailing shamefully behind him, the afternoon previously, but she lacked any motivation to be angry when he apologised. She simply rolled her shoulders and faked a grin.  
“It’s okay, I’ll get over it eventually,” she’d assured him, but neither he nor Jason had looked at all convinced.  
To make matters worse, Piper hadn’t seen Leo since he’d stormed off to see Calypso that morning. Thalia had driven over to pick him up, as per usual, on Friday morning, but he hadn’t been waiting out the front. And when his foster brother, Charlie Beckendorf (who Thalia knew well, for some reason or the other), had answered the door, he’d just said Leo had walked earlier, the same confusion evident on his face.  
Pitying the poor dude, Thalia had given him a lift to school, instead.

“Hey.” Hazel’s voice broke Piper from her trance, and she turned to see her smiling softly. “It’ll get better. Whatever happened between you two, it’ll sort itself out before you move to Oklahoma.”  
Piper nodded, feeling guilt wash through her system. She still hadn’t told anybody else what exactly had happened at Will’s party, nor had she told them the real reason she was moving.  
As Drew finally wrapped up her presentation with a half-hearted ‘and hurrah, he was dead!’ and a thrown handful of glitter that Piper couldn’t even begin to imagine the origin of, the unbelievably loud bell split the classroom. Piper stood up, and slung her bag over her shoulder, popping her arm muscles back into their rightful place.  
“Are you going home before coming to ours?” Hazel asked, pushing her things back into her faux leather schoolbag. Piper appreciated her dedication to aesthetic, without harming animals.  
“Probably not, if that’s okay.” Piper shrugged her bag onto her shoulder and brushed off her strikingly red skirt. “Dad’ll just be gushing to Aphrodite again.”  
“Oh, okay! Frank and Will are coming, too-” Hazel froze, then frowned and turned back to Piper. “Wait a second, who’s _Aphrodite_?”  
Piper balked, and felt her knees go weak, almost collapsing beneath her. She gripped the back of a chair to keep herself standing.

“I- what?” Piper hated how hushed her voice was. Hazel’s eyes softened.  
“Piper… are you… the real reason you’re moving… it’s not your dad’s job, is it?” Hazel walked forward and gently took Piper’s wrists, brushing her thumbs across Piper’s skin and tugging her out of the classroom. “Listen, let’s walk and talk. We need to get off school grounds.”  
“I’m sorry.” Piper wanted to close her eyes and sit down in the school hallways, and never move for the rest of eternity. “I’m so sorry, Hazel. I didn’t want to tell you.”  
“Don’t be sorry, you’re not obliged to tell us every single thing happening in your life,” Hazel assured her, leading her to where Frank, Nico and Will were all standing and waiting patiently, talking cheerfully and happily as they watched students whoop and cheer, excitement ringing throughout the atmosphere. Piper wished she could be a part of it all.  
“Aphrodite’s my mom,” Piper confessed, looking anywhere but at Hazel. “She found where my dad and I had been living since she’d _abandoned_ us when I was a _baby_. She made up some humbo-jumbo about ‘coincidentally’ finding my dad better work where she lives, in Oklahoma, and now my dad’s obsessed with moving in with her. She’s so… she’s so fucking fake! She’s changed our whole lives for the worse, and she acts like she hasn’t gone off and left my dad to look after me- _me_ , a complete handful! - for _seventeen years_!”  
Piper hadn’t realised she’d started blurting, and even when she did, she couldn’t stop.  
“And to top _that_ off, something’s wrong with Leo and I haven’t seen him since he walked away yesterday morning. He just looks so upset and gloomy and lost and I can’t help him because he won’t tell me what’s wrong! Plus, I’ve had this meltdown with Annabeth and I just- I don’t know what to do, Hazel.”

Hazel seemed stunned. Her brows creased together.  
“Pipes… I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”  
Piper shrunk back into herself.  
“Don’t- it’s fine. I shouldn’t have dropped that all on you.”  
“But-”  
“Seriously. That was bad of me.”  
Hazel still looked concerned.  
“Why don’t we discuss it on the way home?”  
Piper considered this. Hazel only ever suggested the best ways to go around things. Then again, there _was_ time to wait, and Piper wasn’t too sure she was ready for them to hear, anyway.  
“Not yet.” She tried to smile, but she was sure it just came out looking more like a grimace. Hazel squeezed her wrist. “I’ll tell them soon. But I want to do it myself. Please don’t tell them anything, okay?”  
Hazel nodded comfortingly.  
“It’ll be okay, Pipes. Hey, why didn’t you tell us anyway?”  
“Well… I know you guys aren’t all that close with your moms, or don’t know them, or things like that, so…” Piper cleared her throat, cheeks burning with shame. “I figured you would get mad that I was being ungrateful.”  
“Aw, gee, Piper, we understand!” Hazel giggled. “I mean, my mom wasn’t… the greatest… you know? Even before she died. She liked dabbling in witchcraft, or something like that. And she used to make me her little poster girl. Used me as an example. For something. I don’t know, I didn’t understand it, I was pretty young and she didn’t explain anything.”  
“I didn’t know that,” Piper said, scratching the back of her neck. “She was a witch?”  
“I don’t know. I think so. Like I said, I was pretty young. But when we lived in New Orleans, _I_ got called ‘the witch’s daughter’. To be honest with you, when I ran into Nico and Bianca while Mom and I were visiting Italy, I was relieved. They recognised _something_ in me, and when Dad caught up with them, my mother saw him.”

Piper had never heard Hazel talk about her mother before. She’d brushed on her past -mostly just that she used to live in New Orleans, and she met Nico and Bianca completely by coincidence while she was on vacation in Italy. It was like listening to bedtime story, or a folktale- it seemed just that tiny bit unreal, but real enough to believe.  
“All Hell broke loose,” Hazel continued. She adjusted her bag straps on her shoulders, and pulled her curly hair out beneath them. “My mother screamed at him for leaving her pregnant with me. Bianca tried to shield Nico, and all three of us were crying. Dad didn’t even _remember_ her.”  
“You’re the youngest out of you, Nico and Bianca, right?” Piper asked.  
“Oh, yes,” Hazel confirmed, “I am. Nico’s a year older, and Bianca’s three years older than me. Their mother and our father weren’t married when they had Nico and Bee, and after Nico was born they called off their relationship for a little while. That’s when _I_ was born, and after that, my father was shooed out of New Orleans. Berated for having an affair with ‘the witch’. He couldn’t return. He and Maria di Angelo ended up married. Our family tree rather strange.”  
Piper had heard that Nico, Hazel and Bianca’s parentage was weird, but she’d never heard the full story. And she _had_ known about the age gaps- Nico was a sophomore while she was a junior, and Hazel was a freshman, but Piper had known their family for a while. Jason’s father and theirs were good friends, so often, when Piper and Leo visited Jason, the others would be there too.  
Piper had always liked their family. They were very sweet. Sometimes, when she was younger and visiting Jason’s, she’d get bored of playing video games with Leo, Jason and Nico, and find where Hazel and Bianca were chasing each other around the house.

“Wow,” Piper breathed. “And I thought _my_ family was different. Why are you telling me this, anyway? What did I do to deserve the knowledge of the strange Levesque/di Angelo family?”  
“Well.” Hazel beamed up at Piper as they reached Frank, Will and Nico. “I thought you might like to take your mind off your current situation. Hey guys! Piper’s coming with us today.”  
“Oh, finally!” Nico burst. He tugged at the collar of his biker jacket. “We’ve been waiting for so long! Seriously, Bianca’s going to kill us!”  
“She would _never_ ,” Hazel replied, “She loves us too much. Is she waiting at Hestia’s Home?”  
“As always,” Nico said, “she waits when her shift finishes, remember? So, where were you guys?”  
“Drew’s presentation ran late,” Piper lied, pulling her hair out of it’s braid. “You know what she’s like.”  
“I don’t think she’s all that bad, to be honest,” Frank admitted. “She has a heart. Sometimes.”  
“Alright, let’s get going,” Nico grabbed Will’s shoulders and pushed him along. “Come on, loser.”  
“You and Hazel, honestly, _wounding_ me.” Will laughed as Nico poked him in the sides. “Okay, okay, I’m going!”  
“How are they _not_ a couple yet?” Piper muttered. Hazel shrugged, slipping her hand into Frank’s.  
“Nico’s stubborn. I think he’s specifically _not_ admitting that he has a crush on Will out of spite.”  
“Yeah, I mean, we _do_ kind of tease him about it.” Frank kicked a pebble across the pathway, and Piper watched it bounce from side to side. “But for real. They’re so blunt.”

The walk to Hestia’s Home (the favourite café for students of Olympus High) was short, and they found Bianca waiting for them out the front.  
“ _There_ you are!” Bianca laughed. She wore her uniform, ‘Hestia’s Home’ printed across the front. Bianca had a rather short school day on Fridays, being a senior, and she took the chance she had to work at the homey café.  
“Sorry we’re late, Bee, we picked up Piper along the way,” Hazel said, gesturing to her side. Piper waved, and Bianca grinned.  
“Hey, Pipes. Alright, everybody, in the car. Nico, push down the seats in the trunk of the car so you and Will can sit there.”  
“What?” Nico exclaimed, already making his way to the back of Bianca’s car. “Why me and Will? Why not Hazel and Frank?”  
“Because Hazel and Frank won’t care if I play my own music.” Bianca opened the passenger seat of her car and waved Piper in. “You will. Sit in the back and suffer.”  
“I hate you,” Nico mumbled, gently pulling Will into the seats in the trunk.  
“No you don’t.”  
Piper snickered, and slid into the front seat, throwing her feet onto the dashboard. Behind her, Hazel and Frank crawled into the middle seats.  
“ _Ma stai scherzando_! _What_ are _those-_ ” Bianca jabbed a finger at Piper’s feet. “-doing on my dashboard?”  
“I have literally no idea what you just said,” Piper said, tucking her feet back down. “Sorry. _Scusa_.”  
“So you don’t know what I just said, but you _can_ say sorry?” Bianca scoffed, but Piper could see her smiling. “You’re unbelievable.”  
“My Italian is limited, Bee.”

* * *

 

Piper loved the di Angelo-Levesque household. It was comfortably big, and everything in the house was neat and tidy, but if you looked closely, there were tiny things out of place. Like the vertical garden in the kitchen, with mostly herbs but _one_ hibiscus plant. Or the line of trophies on a shelf in the living room, one of which was a fake award Hazel had created for Bianca after she was disappointed she hadn’t made it to the spelling bee finals.  
“We’re home!” Bianca yelled as she closed the door behind her.  
“Welcome back!” Came a shout from upstairs. Nico narrowed his eyes.  
“Dad mustn’t be home yet. That was Persephone.”  
Next to Piper, Will grinned.  
“I love this place. It’s so… _organised_.”  
“Gosh, if you think it’s _all_ neat, you should see Nico’s room,” Hazel said, peeling off her cardigan. “It’s a mess! But, yes, the rest of the house is lovely.”  
Piper followed Hazel and Frank to the living room, admiring the photo of young Bianca and Nico in a frame on the wall. They grinned with dimples in their cheeks, but there was something in Bianca’s eyes that looked like she wasn’t as happy as she looked.  
Piper knew when that photo was from. It was easy to tell.  
Nico had told the story of Bianca’s Leukaemia a few times. She’d been diagnosed when she was twelve, and started chemotherapy when she was thirteen. During those times, Nico had turned into a completely different person- once a cheerful, over-excited ten-year-old boy who used to insist on playing his favourite card game with everyone he saw became a dull and glum eleven-year-old who spoke only when spoken to. It lasted _years_. Piper saw Nico almost as often as she saw Jason, since his father was always busy helping Bianca through her chemo and his mother was long dead. There were even times when Piper visited Jason’s and Nico and Hazel alike had a whole room set up for them, since the hospital refused to let them stay overnight with their sister and there was nobody to look after them at home.

Bianca was still affected by the cancer even now, but the last time she’d really come close to losing her battle with it was when she was fifteen. She was eighteen now, and Piper had seen her, Nico and Hazel come a long way from when she was diagnosed.  
“Are you staying with us for movie night?” Frank’s deep voice pulled Piper back to her full consciousness. Bianca shook her head.  
“Can’t. I should study for my first exams. I’ll be upstairs the whole time.”  
Frank nodded.  
“Fair enough.”  
Piper wandered over to where Nico and Will were flipping through Hazel’s selection of movies, discussing and debating in full detail why each movie was better than the last.  
“Disney’s Hercules?” Will offed, holding up a disc. Piper chuckled, and kneeled with the boys as Nico waved it away.  
“No way. The representations of the gods in the film are incredulously inaccurate.”  
“Hey, I know big words too!” Will flailed his arms. “Besides, since when do _you_ care about Greek gods?”  
“Since my father and stepmother earned the nicknames Hades and Persephone. Duh.” Nico elbowed Will, smiling softly.  
“Okay, who nicknamed them, Nico? Wanna tell us that?” Piper interrupted, and Will’s head shot to look at her so quickly Piper was sure he’d cricked his neck. Nico’s face bloomed the colour of a poppy. Piper grinned.

“Have you ever heard of Mythomagic, Will?” She asked. Will raised an eyebrow.  
“Yeah? My little sister Kayla plays it. She taught me the rules a few years ago. Why?”  
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it,” Nico said, then pointed a finger at Piper with a threatening glare. “You. _Chiudi la bocca_ , and don’t pretend you don’t understand that, because I significantly remember teaching you how to say it when you were fourteen.”  
Piper raised her hands in mock innocence. _Shut your mouth_ was a phrase she’d wanted to learn so she could hit back at Drew Tanaka in French class. Drew had been a rather unpleasant person to be around back in eighth grade, and liked to use her impeccable knowledge of French to make fun of Piper, so in retaliation, Piper learned bits of Italian to one-up her.  
Will made a sound of confusion.  
“I really need to learn Italian,” he sighed. “My dad learned it a few years ago and now he thinks he’s cool when he speaks it at home and nobody can understand him. Bella always calls him out in Spanish so he stops.”  
“Bella’s your sister, right?” Nico asked. Will’s eyes lit up, and Piper could see Nico’s body lose its tension. He’d successfully changed the subject  
“Yeah, she’s my half-sister, and she’s year older than me, so she’s Bianca’s age. Her mom’s Cuban.”  
“Does she go back and forth between your house and her mom’s?” Nico asked. Suddenly, Piper felt very much like she was intruding on an intimate conversation.  
“Yeah, sometimes. Mostly just on school vacation, though, because her mom lives all the way over in Amsterdam.”

Piper stood up and walked away as Nico continued the conversation. Will wasn’t a private person, in the sense that he didn’t talk about his family- in fact, he’d gabble on about them at any chance he could take. He loved his family. But for Nico to ask about somebody else’s home life… Piper barely ever saw it happen, unless it was with somebody he really and truly liked.  
She shook herself, and joined Hazel and Frank in the kitchen, where they were making some sort of strange concoction.  
“What the hell are you guys _doing_?” She asked, slightly intimidated by the mess. It looked so out of place in the usually-neat-and-perfect house.  
“To be completely honest with you, we don’t have a clue,” Frank admitted. Hazel groaned in defeat.  
“We were trying to follow a recipe to make caramel popcorn, but something went wrong and now we’re… stuck.”  
“Oh, I love caramel popcorn!” Piper said, and brushed a corn kernel from Hazel’s wild hair. “I actually know a recipe off by heart. Do you have enough popcorn too restart?”  
“Oh, you’re a gem,” Hazel cried out in relief. Frank chortled, and wiped a glob of burnt caramel from the benchtop.  
“Where would we be without you, Pipes?” He said. Piper grinned, trying to be smug. “Seriously, we’ll be a disaster when you’re gone.”  
“Well, I’m still trying to convince my dad to stay here-”  
Piper froze at the sound of the old doorbell ringing through the house, and a very familiar voice calling out.  
“Hope we’re not too early,” Annabeth Chase chirped, poking her head through the door while Reyna stood patiently behind her. “Figured we’d drop in before five.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ma stai scherzando - are you kidding me?  
> some things to keep an eye on (~foreshadowing~)-  
> Leo's mood  
> SIlena Beauregard & Drew Tanaka (they have a LOT to do with Piper's mum......... keep an eye out on their behaviour ;) )  
> Bianca's cancer
> 
> also this is. a very slow burn. in case you were wondering.


	5. Sweet Little Unforgettable Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> have you ever seen the movie circle bc if not this chapter might not make any sense please watch it it’s so good it’s on Netflix. not The Circle, just circle. That’s all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what the fuck even is writing, honestly, I don’t know

**-Piper-**

Piper was _really_ beginning to realise how deep she’d fallen for Annabeth Chase.

By now, Will and Nico had finally settled on the movie _Circle_ (“It’s a perfectly adequate thriller movie,” Nico had said, much to Will’s surprise. “And I think it’d be great to watch.”), and Piper was wedged between Percy and Hazel, only half interested in the film. Annabeth sat underneath a blanket in the armchair on Percy’s right, and Piper kept subconsciously eyeing her, hoping nobody could see her looking in the dark. Annabeth’s eyes reflected a calm rainstorm as she focused on the movie- they widened periodically and in time with the jarring deaths of the movie.  
Piper shivered, realising she’d once again started staring at Annabeth. To distract herself she scanned the room, looking at each of her friends and noticing tiny things she didn’t usually notice.  
Her eyes fell on Leo first. He was lying on the ground with his head in Jason’s lap, and when Piper looked closer, she could see that his eyes were a millimetre away from closing. He really must have been tired. She still had no idea what had affected his mood, but he seemed at least a little more chipper tonight, making bad jokes and crooning at Hazel and Frank (“You guys act like a couple that have been married for ninety years and love each other so much they’re going to die at the exact same time and place!”). Although, he _did_ seem a little more clingy- he’d been draping himself across Piper and Jason all night, burying his head into their shoulders and putting tiny braids in their hair.  
Piper ran her hand over her hair, feeling the thin plaits. Jason had a few, too. Leo’s handiwork was better than Piper had expected it to be.

Jason was leaning against the coffee table, one hand resting across the tabletop’s length and one lying over Leo’s side. Piper’s heart filled with warm honey- she hoped that one day, Jason would gather his courage and ask Leo out. Maybe once Leo was over Calypso. For now, though, the two boys looked perfectly content leaning into each other as nothing more than ‘friends, one of which actually likes the other but won’t say anything about it’.  
Piper glanced to the other couch on the left side of the room. Will, Nico and Reyna had immediately claimed it, much to the disdain and light-hearted complaining of the others. It was common knowledge that that exact sofa was the most comfortable, with its squishy seats and plush armrests. It was a mixture of incredible luck and determination that the three of them scored the sofa each time. Even today, the second Reyna had walked through the door, she had run straight to the couch with nothing more than a ‘hello, everybody!’ and a tiny wave. Will and Nico had sprinted after her, throwing themselves onto the couch and laughing themselves spineless as Piper chased them, crying ‘ _AGAIN_?’ and falling to her knees in a dramatic attempt to escape an awkward conversation with Annabeth in the kitchen.  
Usually, the three teens sat side-by-side in a line across the sofa, pressed together since it was a two-seater. Today, however, Reyna had shoved Nico into Will’s lap, complaining that the younger boy had had a growth spurt and was too big to fit between her and Will anymore.  
“Your scrawny ass isn’t scrawny anymore and it literally _kills_ me to sit next to you now,” Reyna had said, before shooting Piper a subtle wink.  
Now, Piper watched as Nico leant back into Will, feet propped against Reyna’s lap as an act of revenge.

Frank and Hazel were seated next to Piper, hands entwined as they enjoyed the peacefulness they’d been granted. Piper envied the happiness they radiated, knowing that if she couldn’t talk her father out of moving to Oklahoma, she’d never get to experience that affection she craved with Annabeth. They were so perfectly at ease with each other, never having to fret about mistake-kisses and hands up and down their arms and their brain swimming with passion and alcohol and-  
_Stop it!_ Piper scolded herself, tearing her gaze away from the couple. _You always do this! You compare yourself to couples and suddenly you’re bitching about the time Annabeth made out with you? Get over it! It meant nothing to her!_  
Piper sighed, wriggling back into the couch. She looked up at Percy, who’s attention had dropped away from the film and was now off at something else, judging by the faraway look in his green eyes. Piper could kind of see why Annabeth had fallen for him. Kind of. Just a little.  
“Oh, he’s up to something,” Hazel murmured, breaking the silence of the group and making Reyna jump.  
“Definitely,” Annabeth agreed. Piper forced herself to stare at the carpet. “Look at him! He’s got that brooding look on his face, exactly like the one Nico gets when he’s planning vengeance.”  
“Hey!” Nico snapped, shifting in Will’s lap so he could glare at Annabeth. “I look a hundred times more attractive than that twat, even when I’m brooding!”  
Despite herself, Piper snickered.  
“Sure, Nico,” she drawled. Percy’s head jolted, and he looked around wildly.  
“Wait, what are we making fun of Nico for this time?” He asked, confusion scribbled all over his face. Nico scowled.  
“Nothing!” He hissed.  
“Shut up, will you pay attention?” Leo whined from the ground. Piper was surprised he was still awake. “They’re down to the last three people!”

Piper slammed her jaw shut and turned her attention back to the screen. Hazel tensed up next to her. The climax of the movie climbed, climbed, climbed…  
And then the plot exploded. Hazel and Leo cried out in angry shock, and Reyna threw a leftover piece of half-popped caramel popcorn at the screen, booing. Will elbowed her, frowning, but even as he did, Nico took the rest of the kernels and tossed them in the same direction.  
“You’ve seen this _before_ , Nico,” Will sighed.  
“Asshole!” Percy cried, stomping his feet. Piper made an undignified noise of agreement and joined him.  
“You can’t kill a pregnant woman!” She burst, clenching her fists. “Like, are you kidding me! Fuck off! C’mon, Will, get angry at him! He’s a trick-ass bitch.”  
“I forgot how dirty your language gets when you’re angry,” Frank murmured, burning a hole into the screen with his glare. Piper scoffed, but smirked in satisfaction as Will hissed loudly in the direction of the TV, pointing his thumbs down.  
Piper tried to ignore the way Annabeth yelled ‘pathetic!’ while furiously folding her arms, but it was so, _so_ hard when Annabeth’s lip jutted out in a pissed-off pout, and her curly hair (which, Piper noted against her will, had been left out in soft waves) fell into her eyes as she hunched forward, the blanket slipping off her shoulders and-  
“You’re staring again,” Percy whispered quietly, nudging Piper. Piper startled and gulped, twisting back to the film as the credits rolled through, leaving behind a room of disgruntled teens.  
“I _cannot_ believe you guys chose that movie!” Frank said, looking directly at Nico and Will and running his hand through Hazel’s hand to calm her down. Will shrugged.  
“It’s a good movie! With a good plot twist!” he insisted. Nico clicked his tongue, a sign Piper had picked up on when he was younger that meant ‘so and so, what’s your point?’. Piper assumed he was directing it at Frank and not Will.

“Jesus Christ, what did you guys _watch_?” Bianca asked, spooking Piper and making her jump to turn around. Bianca stood leaning against the staircase banister, an empty mug clutched in her hand and a pen behind her ear. “All I could hear was yelling.”  
“ _Circle_ ,” Annabeth replied, tightening her blanket. Piper had to physically restrain herself from blushing. She wished she could get used to Annabeth talking- it was just a common human activity. Nevertheless, this was _Annabeth_ , and Piper doubted she’d ever stop getting at least a little flustered around her.  
“Oh! Okay, that makes sense.” Bianca nodded, then her face pulled into an expression of concern and worry. “Hey, has anybody seen a pen? I think I might have dropped it down these stairs when Hazel and Leo screamed.”  
Nico eyed his sister’s ear carefully, then raised his hands.  
“Nowhere to be found,” he said.  
“Hey! Nico, you’re so mean!” Hazel tapped her ear. “Check here, Bee.”  
Bianca reached a hand to her ear, and grinned, then thanked Hazel hurriedly and raced back upstairs.  
“Aw, Hazel, you’re no fun,” Nico whined, pushing himself off Will’s legs. “Okay, another movie?”  
“Nah, not after that one,” Jason replied, cracking his knuckles out. Leo and Piper cringed, and Reyna flung a cushion at him. “Oi- what was that for?”  
“For popping your joints,” Reyna said simply, then stood up and cuffed the back of Jason’s head for good measure. Jason rubbed the spot she’d hit softly and winced.  
“Lesson learned,” he muttered.

“Um- is Leo awake?” Percy asked, standing up and stretching. “Because he doesn’t look like he is.”  
“Hmmm.” Piper scampered towards her friends and shoved her face close to Leo. His eyes had finally flittered closed, and now his face was free of any tension it might have held before. She poked his arm gently, just to double-check.  
“Nope. He’s asleep,” Piper announced, standing up again. “Sorry, Jace, you’re stuck there for the rest of the night.”  
“Just lay him across this couch, he’s a heavy sleeper, you won’t wake him up,” Hazel patted the sofa and rolled off it. Frank got to his feet.  
“Leave him on the floor,” he suggested. Hazel rolled her eyes.  
“Don’t do that.” She tugged on Piper’s elbow. “Do you, Will and Nico want to help me make drinks? God knows you’re the only ones who won’t spill everything.”  
“Aw, what about me?”  
“Also you, Frank.”

Piper trotted after Hazel into the kitchen, watching Will close the sliding door behind him and cutting off Annabeth, Percy, Reyna, Jason and Leo.  
“Do you remember what everybody likes, Hazel?” Piper asked. Hazel nodded, filling the kettle with warm tap water and setting it back on the stove. Piper liked that this modern-clean-and-perfect family household had an old-fashioned kettle. It made them all the more real.  
_I bet Aphrodite won’t have an old-fashioned kettle._  
Piper _had_ told one more person about Aphrodite, but she’d told her almost as soon as she’d found out, even before Leo and Jason- Sally Jackson. She’d run to her, crying, the second her dad had broken the news to her, knowing she could trust her. Percy hadn’t been home- he was situated with his father. She’d begged Sally not to tell him, promising she’d tell him the real reason one day soon, anyway. She hoped she’d kept her promise.  
“Of course! Reyna, Percy, Piper and Annabeth like hot chocolate, Jason, Will and I like tea, and Nico, Leo and Frank like coffee. I’ll skip Leo this time, though.”  
“Good idea,” Will agreed, reaching into the cupboard only he, Jason and Frank could even get to and pulling out nine mugs. Piper smiled behind her hands as he chose cautiously- their favourite mugs. She loved this home.  
“Here you go, Ghost King,” Will chirped, handing a tall black mug with a tiny little ghost on the rim to Nico, who scowled half-heartedly.  
“Don’t call me that,” he said. “It was a phase, and I was eleven years old.”

“Aw, I like the nickname,” Piper mentioned, sitting on the benchtop and swinging her legs back and forth. Frank swatted her calf.  
“Alright, _Beauty Queen_ ,” Will scoffed, sliding her a glitzy, silver and gold mug that read _Sweet Little Unforgettable Thing._ Piper clapped.  
“Yes! You remembered! Will, I’m gonna marry you!” Piper tapped her nails on the curved handle of the mug. Frank laughed.  
“I forgot about that mug. Who got it for you, again?” He asked, taking his own ceramic cup off Will. Piper thought his mug was cute- it was decorated with dinosaur bones, and was a gift Hazel and Percy had teamed up to get him when he was thirteen. “He loves animals, we love dinosaurs, it’s perfect!” Percy had explained when he and Hazel had brought it home.  
“Leo did,” Piper replied to Frank, admiring the way the mug shimmered with light. “Jason said it was a really cute idea, and it matched my personality.”  
“And then Leo said ‘yeah, the first letters of the word spell _S.L.U.T_ , I thought she’d find it absolutely hilarious!’. And you held it like it was the most important thing in the world.” Nico shook his head. “Yeah, I remember. Jason was horrified, you laughed your head off.”  
“Hazel, yours is my favourite,” Will said, grabbing Hazel and Jason’s mugs. “I like the horse, it’s so cute. Gold eyes and everything.”

“Aw, thanks, Will!” Hazel gushed.  
Piper fiddled with the handle on her own mug, her mind trailing off once again upon seeing Annabeth’s mug get pulled from the cupboard. _She_ had been the one to pick that cup- it was a congratulatory gift after Annabeth had come first in a nation-wide narrative-writing competition, her winning piece a short story about a young girl escaping a murderer in her own town. The mug was printed with cursive lettering, spelling out long words Piper couldn’t pronounce and Percy had almost cried trying to read (“My dyslexia is bad enough without trying to read _those_ words, honestly!”). Annabeth had thought it was quaint- though she insisted she couldn’t read it either, the surly words too hard against her own dyslexia, Piper had seen her getting Jason to read them out to her, and her lips shaping the words silently when she drank from it. It warmed her heart- such a small gift had convinced Annabeth to memorise words she couldn’t even read properly. Piper loved that she’d been able to give her something as meaningful as that.  
“Piper, you good? You zoned out again.”  
Piper looked up with a start. Hazel and Frank were gazing at her sympathetically, while Will and Nico discussed theories about _Circle_ in the background. Piper gulped.  
“Um… yeah. Just thinking.”  
“About whatever happened between you and Annabeth?” Frank asked gently. Piper looked to the side, gritting her teeth.  
“Yeah,” she muttered quietly. Will and Nico stopped conspiring, and glanced over at Piper. Will twiddled his thumbs.  
“What _did_ happen between you guys?” Hazel asked. “I know it was awkward and hard to deal with, but I don’t know what it actually was.”

Piper took a deep breath. She met Will’s eyes, and a pulse of pride and belief bounced in the blue irises. Piper raised her head and jutted out her chin, trying to fill herself with self-confidence.  
“Um…” She stretched her fingers, preparing herself subconsciously. “Do you guys remember Will’s party? Like… two months ago? Or so?”  
“Yeah?” Nico raised an eyebrow. “What, did you spill punch on her or something?”  
“What?” Piper faltered. “No, what the hell? No. She pulled me upstairs and made out with me in the guest bedroom.”  
There it was. The words spilled out like they were the steam pouring from the kettle on the stove, whistling through the shocked silence. Piper clapped her hands over her mouth, staring at Will as if she was asking him through her eyes, _did I seriously just ask that?_  
Will’s grimace said she had.  
Piper bit the inside of her cheek at glanced over at Frank, Hazel and Nico, who all stood with their mouths gaping. She gritted her teeth. Stupid mouth.  
“Oh…” Frank managed. Nico’s eyebrows pushed downwards.  
“So?” He asked. Will stomped on his toe.  
“So… I tried to talk to her about it, and she just… I don’t know. She rejected me.”  
“That’s bullshit,” Nico replied, ignoring Will’s harder pushing of his toes. Piper sneered sarcastically.  
“Clearly not.” She clicked her nails against her mug. “She’s avoiding me, isn’t she?”  
Nico opened his mouth, probably to argue (Piper had gotten in countless numbers of petty arguments with the scrawny boy, mostly about the proper way to curse out a bad teacher), but seemed to decide against it and shut his mouth, looking down.

Hazel took a slow, deep breath.  
“Gosh, Pipes… I’m really sorry about that,” was all she could muster. Whatever. To Piper, it was a heartfelt apology on behalf of Annabeth- a tiny bit of reassurance. Piper needed it, anyway.  
“Thank you,” she whispered, trying to smile. She almost jumped out of her skin when the skettle’s whistle turned into a scream, and Hazel rushed to take it off the stove before it spilled out through the spout.  
Ten minutes later, sitting around a tin of off-brand (but _deliciously_ good) assorted chocolates and sipping hot drinks, Piper felt like a ten-tonne weight had been lifted off her chest. Today, she’d told one more person about Aphrodite, Leo was almost back to normal, and she’d admitted to close friends what exactly was going on between her and Annabeth. She tried her absolute hardest not to think about the fact that she'd be leaving moments like these behind her for good once she stepped into the car with her dad in a couple of months time, GPS tracked for Oklahoma- after all, she was finally having a good time, playing _Cards Against Humanity_ with the people she cared about and loved and laughing so hard it felt like she’d split her side. She didn’t need to think about that sort of thing, not right now.

Not when things were finally, _finally_ , starting to get better for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> k but it's going to come crashing down again, be warned ;)  
> EDIT: FUCK I FORGOT LEO AND JASON HAD FOUND OUT, SHOOT ME, IT'S BEEN FIXED THO


	6. Hestia's Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> don't come for me I'm SORRY

**-Piper-**

“So… what’s the value of _x_?”  
Piper released a grumbling sound of frustration and buried her head in her hands. Across from her, Leo tossed his pencil at her.  
“Pipes, I’m serious! I have no idea!” He slapped his hands against the paper Piper and Jason had been working on, trying to show him how to work through an equation he’d been stuck on.  
“Man, we’ve been working on this for forty minutes now,” Jason sighed. “How are you still stuck?”  
“I just don’t understand how you took that--” Leo jabbed his finger at the beginning of the equation. “–and turned it into that!” He dragged his finger across the page to the final step before the solution. Piper lifted her head.  
“ _Really_?” She took the paper. “Look, you expand the brackets, collect like terms, multiply the fraction and the answer and then you’re _done_. It isn’t that _hard_!”  
Leo blinked, his eyes jumping from the equation, to Jason, to Piper, to the paper again, and then back at Piper.  
“But… how did you get the nine from the thirty-seven?”  
“ _WE DIDN’T!”_ Piper burst. She felt a little bad for yelling, but she’d been working through this problem with Leo for two-thirds of an hour, and he _still_ didn’t understand.  
“Maybe we try going about it in a different order?” Jason suggested. Piper folded her arms, closed her eyes, and nodded slowly.  
“Alright, we’ll give it a shot.”  
“So, Leo, we’ll try again…”

Piper looked up at the ceiling. Normally, she wasn’t such a temperamental and easy-to-anger person—she was a relatively chill person. But in the time between Friday evening’s movie night and Sunday’s tutoring sessions with Leo, she’d tried once more to convince her father that they’d be better off staying in New York, and it had blown up into an argument. A very loud, very heated argument that Piper painfully lost- if anything, the move to Oklahoma was just more cemented than ever.

 _“Piper, you’ve barely touched your food.” Tristan Mclean is observant. Piper knows this. She’s a little glad, but also extremely irritated by it.  
“So?” She mutters. Tristan sighs.  
“So it’s very unusual for you. Usually you’re finished your food within five minutes, especially tofu burgers.”  
Piper pokes her burger.  
“Touched it.” She smiles half-heartedly so her dad knows she’s just joking around, and not being a smartass. Tristan chortles good-naturedly.  
“It’s good to see you joking again,” he says. “I don’t see you having fun very often in this house. Not anymore.”  
Piper readies herself. This is it- her best chance.  
“Well,” she starts. “There’s a reason for that.” She watches her father set down his burger and frown slightly, the (very new) stress lines in his forehead wrinkling.  
“Oh?” He probes, sipping his red wine. Piper tries her best not to wrinkle her nose, imagining the taste of the bitter liquor on her tongue.  
“Dad, I really think you should reconsider moving to Oklahoma,” she rushes, tripping over her words to ensure that her father won’t stop listening. “Everybody we know -spare for Aphrodite, and we barely know her anyway—lives in New York. All my friends, your colleagues, _ your _friends… everybody. Are you sure we should move_ just _for Aphrodite?”  
For a moment, Tristan looks mildly offended, but Piper stands her ground. Then he frowns and sighs, disgruntled.  
“Piper, you know how important she is to me.”  
“So invite her here!” Piper bursts, pushing to her last resort. “There’s plenty of room!”  
“Your mother has work over in Oklahoma, and so will I. Perhaps you will, too.” There’s bite to Tristan’s words, bite Piper has never heard before.  
“Well I have _ friends _here! And places I love! I don’t think I’m going to find a café as nice as Hestia’s Home in Oklahoma, nor will I find a florist as beautiful with gifts as Persephone! I don’t want to leave everything behind, Dad!”_

 _“You’ll start anew,” Tristan snaps, a promise. Piper clenches her fists so tightly her knuckles shake and turn pale.  
“I don’t want to start anew, I want to stay with the people that actually care about me! Not like _ her _!”_  
“She’s your mother!”  
“She abandoned us when I was a baby! She’s never contacted us and now she’s ripping us from our lives! She’s made you a person I barely recognise! She’s a hag!”  
“Piper!” Tristan slams his glass onto the table, but Piper has already stood up, swung her chair and tucked it in, and stormed off, stomach still grumbling with hunger.

“Oh! Holy shit, I get it now! It’s like magic!”  
Piper’s head snapped up, and she realised she’d been digging her nails into her forearms. She stretched out her fingers and stared at the nail-marks. Oops.  
“Did you finally figure it out?” Piper said, faking snarky confidence. Leo smirked, and held up his pencil like it was a wand.  
“I’m a genius, Piper. I got it eventually. Jason’s a _much_ better tutor than you.”  
Jason’s neck turned rash-red. Piper snorted. Thankfully, it seemed Leo was busy gloating about how smart he was.  
Piper knew her friend was joking around, but Leo really _was_ smart. Maybe it wasn’t in the way of equations and formulas and the like, but he could build a machine in two days- he’d fixed Piper’s seemingly unfixable iPod when she was nine, and he’d repaired Jason’s entire electricity board one night after a huge storm. He’d invented device after device for mundane things that Piper hadn’t ever thought she’d need a machine for—for example, a bookshelf that lit up in the space a book you wanted to read was. Simply type in a code, and it’d glow brightly, so you’d never need to search for a book. Or even the tiny blinker that alerted you when your popcorn was finished popping in the microwave, in case you were in another room. Leo was one of the smartest people Piper knew, as intelligent as Annabeth and as creative as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the girl that lived down the street from Percy who sometimes dropped into his house to say hello, and who was the one who painted the mural of a horse made of water on Percy’s bedroom wall. His brain seemed to be constantly on the hunt for things that needed improvement, or just new products altogether.

“Alright, bud, we get it,” Jason laughed, swishing his hand down. “Sit down before you hurt yourself.”  
Leo stopped dancing around and plopped to the ground. His fingers twiddled with a piece of wire.  
“So now what?” He asked. “We finished that evil problem.”  
“We could go to Hestia’s Home?” Piper suggested. “Bianca said they’re bringing in a new kind of cake today. Oh, and a coffee special. Or something.”  
“Oh fuck, specials at Hestia’s Home?” Leo kicked his legs out and flung his arms above his head, punching Jason in the face in the process. Piper covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. “How can I say no? Sorry, Jason.”  
“It’s fine,” Jason wheezed. Piper cackled with mirth, clutching her stomach. Leo blew a raspberry and cradled Jason’s head in his arms.  
“I’m sowwy, Baby Jasey,” he cooed. Jason giggled, and Piper noticed his cheeks glowing pink. “Did I huwt wou?”  
“Holy crap, Leo, shut _up_ ,” Jason begged. “You sound like a twelve-year-old boy who looks for a goth girl on Musical.ly.”  
“What?” Leo looked outraged. “Man, I’m never saying that _again_.”  
Piper observed their exchange of comedic mocking and Leo rocking Jason’s head with tears of laughter in her eyes.  
_I’m going to miss them so much when I’m gone._

* * *

 

“I love this place.”  
Piper nodded in agreement, closing her eyes and inhaling the soft scent of apple pies and campfires Hestia’s Home smelled of. She, Jason and Leo were seated at a three-seater glass table on plush armchairs, and Piper was pretty sure she was more comfortable than she’d ever been in her life. The pretty, cursive menu of drinks and cakes sat on her lap.  
“It’s like, I get to sit in what I assume a fairy’s house would feel like,” Leo continued, drumming his fingers on his lap. “Also, do you guys know what you want anymore?”  
“Oh, yeah.” Piper’s eyes flew open and she sat up. “I’m getting hot apple cider and the strawberries and cream éclair.”  
“Cute,” Leo replied. “Jason?”  
“Just a mango mineral water and plate of scones,” Jason said, cleaning his glasses on his shirt. “You know how boring I am.”  
“Okay, well while you get that lame normal-café stuff, I’m gonna get the cherry and chocolate milkshake and honeycomb and caramel cheesecake. Watch me gorge myself, honestly.”  
Piper laughed softly through her nose. She folded her menu and placed it atop of Jason and Leo’s.  
“You guys ready to order yet?” Silena Beauregard, a senior at Olympus High, appeared to Piper’s right with a notebook in hand. Her baby blue headscarf suited her- though, to be fair, anything would look good on Silena. She was as close to natural perfection as you could get. Piper appreciated how modest and kind she was, despite the attention she received for her looks.

“Yeah, thanks Sil,” Leo said, before rattling off the trio’s orders. Silena smiled.  
“Gotcha. I’ll tell Hestia you guys said hello. Leo, tell your brother I hope he’s doing well.”  
She turned and walked off. Jason cocked an eyebrow.  
“What was that about?”  
“What, with my brother?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Oh.” Leo settled back into his armchair. “Charlie’s got the hots for her and she knows it, but she’s waiting for some secret reason to go out with him. I don’t know why, she’s hidden about it.”  
“Smart girl,” Piper said. Leo nodded.  
They sat peacefully, talking lightly about school and hobbies and how the yearbook was coming along (“I _still_ can’t believe Nico actually voted Rachel into that ‘date Calypso’ thing I put in. I mean, she doesn’t even go to our school! Besides, he realises I was joking, doesn’t he? Right?” Leo had stressed, much to the amusement of Piper and Jason). Every now and then, Piper thought about her problem with Annabeth, but she pushed it back down as soon as the thought bubbled to the top of her brain. This was where she came to feel _good_ —not like a failure. Soon enough, Silena returned with their orders, and Piper was inhaling her éclair like it was the first thing she’d eaten in days.  
“Dude, slow down!” Jason advised. Piper glared at him. “I know you’re a fast eater, but _man_ —you can savour things sometimes!”  
“It’s too good,” Piper mumbled, mouth full of strawberry-flavoured cream and buttery pastry. Leo snickered, licking whipped cream off the rim of his glass.

Piper should have realised how quickly her good luck would fall to pieces.

The calmness lasted another hour, until they started walking along the foreshore, admiring the warm breeze and teasing Jason about how his glasses never seemed to be clean, or straight. It was a relaxed and happy mood that had enveloped Piper.  
Until she received the phone call.  
“Huh, Nico’s calling me,” Piper said. “That’s weird. He usually just texts if he wants something.”  
“Maybe it’s Will stealing Nico’s phone?” Jason suggested. “He never texts, his dyslexia is too bad.”  
“To be honest, I’m mostly concerned about why Nico’s name in your contacts is _di Angel-hoe_.” Leo peered over Piper’s shoulder. Piper batted him away, and hit answer on the phone.  
“Hey, Nico,” she greeted. “Is everything okay?”  
Piper heard nothing but a raspy, choked word she couldn’t make out. She cupped the phone with two hands.  
“Uh… Nico?”  
“It’s Bianca,” Nico suddenly burst, his voice crackling and high pitched. “She just collapsed, and she’s gone whiter than paper. I think her Leukemia is affecting her badly again.”

* * *

 

While Piper made Jason call Thalia to get them a lift to the di Angelo/Levesque household, she soothingly assured Nico through her phone. She could hear the panic rising in his voice and feared that if he went into an anxiety attack, he’d end up unconscious, like his sister. After making sure he’d called an ambulance, Piper found she was shaking like an earthquake. Leo steadied her.  
“What’s going on?” He whispered. She raised her shivering hand, telling him to wait.  
“We’ll be there any minute, Nico,” Piper assured the boy on the other side of the line. “I’m going to send Will and Reyna over, alright? Is Hazel with you?”  
“No,” Nico sobbed, drawing in a rattled breath. “No, she’s on a date with Frank. Tell Will and Reyna to hurry up. _Please_.”  
“Alright. We’ll be there soon. Do you want me to stay on the phone?”  
Nico made a jerky affirmative sound, and Piper flicked him to speakerphone so she could talk to Leo and Jason at the same time.  
“You’re on speaker, Nico, Jason and Leo are with me,” she said, then explained the situation to the other two. Jason’s face went pale.  
“Oh, no,” he whispered. “Okay, Thalia’s on her way.”  
“I’ll call Will and Reyna, like you said,” Leo offered, punching the contact labelled _mr blue sky_ and raising it to her ear.  
“Nico?” Piper turned back to her phone. She felt a lump forming at the back of her throat. This was _not_ happening, not _again_ , not _now_ —  
“Yeah?” Hearing Nico so terrified and fearful reminded Piper of when Bianca had first been diagnosed. He sounded so small, so little, like the child that stood by Bianca’s bed the first time they thought she was a breath away from dying.

“Stay calm, okay, Nico?” Piper said, hearing the fast-paced breathing through the phone speaker and squeezing her eyes shut to stop her own tears. “How’s Bianca?”  
“She’s still breathing but it’s really shallow and fast and her skin is almost translucent, she won’t wake up, Piper what do I do—”  
“Just breathe slowly,” Piper interrupted. “The ambulance is on its way and so are Will and Reyna. We’ll be there in no time, too.”  
“I think—” Nico let out a strangled gasp. “Somebody’s at the door.”  
Pause.  
“I think it’s Reyna.”  
“Let her in, and she’ll be with you, alright?” Piper spotted Thalia’s car pulling to the side of the road, and she, Leo and Jason sped towards her. “I have to go. We’ll be there any second, yeah?”  
Nico didn’t reply, but Piper heard muffled, heartbroken crying and a soothing voice in the background. She suspected Nico had dropped his phone. At least Reyna was with him.  
The trio clambered into Thalia’s car, Leo sitting shotgun, and Piper hung up her phone. Thalia’s lightning-blue eyes were filled to the brim of terror.  
“Hold on, I’m going to break the sound barrier getting there,” she said shakily, then slammed her foot on the accelerator and raced towards Nico’s house.  
“Should we call Hazel?” Leo asked. Jason adjusted his glasses, eyes staring straight ahead with desperation.  
“I already texted her. She’s about an hour away, she and Frank will be there soon. They’re getting the bus.”

Piper’s memory of the trip to Bianca was a blur. She barely remembered getting out of the car—everything came back into focus once she found herself kneeling next to Bianca and clutching her wrist, praying her pulse would stay there. Nico was curled up in Will’s arms – _when had he got here_?—and weeping silently. Reyna paced the room, undoing and re-braiding her hair. Leo and Jason sat next to each other in the one-person chair, but Piper almost didn’t notice. She was too busy trying not to go into a panic attack herself.  
Her eyes panned to Will, who sat with a strangely calm expression on his face, his quiet voice confident and cool. Slowly, Piper began to calm down. He tended to have that effect on people.  
It was weird to see Will so neutral. Sure, he was a laid-back guy, but he was also the type of kid to cry during fire drills in elementary school. He got snappy and angry when people fought with him, and he freaked out when Piper, Hazel and Leo made a bet to see who could climb the highest in an unstable tree. But here he was, collected and fair, talking to Nico like he was a nurse.  
By the time the paramedics arrived, Bianca’s lips were beginning to turn blue. They strapped her into a stretcher, latched a breathing mask to her face, loaded Nico in the ambulance with her, and sped off.  
“That was fucking _scary_ ,” Leo finally gasped, seemingly exhaling a breath he’d been holding. “I’ve only seen her like that once, when she was thirteen.”  
“I didn’t know she was still affected by it,” Reyna whispered, taking a seat. The worry lines in her forehead made Piper feel unusually bad- she couldn’t place a finger on what emotion, she just felt _bad_.

“She hasn’t been like that for years,” Jason said. Leo remained stony-faced and quiet, jaw set.  
“How were you so calm?” Piper burst, craning her neck to look at Will from her position sat with crossed legs on the floor. Will seemed much more panicky now- his eyes were dilated and his fingers twitched like he was desperate to clutch something comforting.  
“I just get like that when someone’s hurt.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why. When my older brother, Michael, and I got into that car accident when I was thirteen, he was the only one hurt. And he was hurt badly. But it was like I _couldn’t be scared_ , I just took control and calmly called 911. I don’t know why I get like that.”  
Piper nodded, still not really understanding. Reyna stood up again. Her hair stuck in odd angles from the many times she’d plaited it.  
“Let’s go to the hospital. Somebody tell Hazel that that’s where we’ll be. Is Thalia still waiting in the car?”  
“Yeah, but she can’t take all of us. Her car only has five seats, and she’s in one of them.” Jason looked out the window, a ghost of horror still haunting his gaze.  
“I can drive Will and Piper. Jason, you and Leo go with Thalia.”  
Piper zoned out once more and brought herself back into focus halfway to the hospital. She sat on her own in the backseat, hugging herself and realising hot tears were flowing freely down her face. She cleared her throat and pressed her palms into her eyes, trying to stop the waterfall of tears, but her body refused to comply.

“Piper, are you okay?” Will turned in his seat. His cheeks had gone blotchy and red, and his blue eyes—so startling against his tawny skin—were glazed with old tears.  
“I’ve known her since I was little,” was all Piper could muster, before she dissolved into a full and fresh set of tears, whimpering for the only sister she’d ever known, blood related or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen you can pry Muslim Silena from my cold, dead hands. feedback and comments are appreciated!


	7. Breakdowns in a McDonalds Parking Lot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> reyna is a philosopher and Leo is upset

**-Piper-**

Sitting in the hospital’s waiting room was torturous.

Piper sat with her leg bouncing up and down in a constant rhythm, staring at the clock on the wall and trying to ignore the noxious smell of antiseptic. Nico was rigid next to her, his chin in his hand, his eyes never moving from the wooden floor. They had kicked him out of the ward once Hades and Persephone had arrived fresh from work—Piper had seen them rush in through the doors, racing without a word to Bianca. Persephone still wore her uniform’s apron and gumboots, and Hades hadn’t bothered to even put away his phone—it was clutched in his long, pale fingers like a lifeline.  
Nico had appeared in the waiting room soon after, shaking and sickly-looking. He’d said nothing since he’d collapsed into the seat between Piper and Will.  
Hazel and Frank had shown up late. Hazel had begged the receptionist to let her into Bianca’s ward, but was ultimately denied, and now she’d disappeared again after screaming that she was the patient’s sister and the poor receptionist had suggested somebody take her somewhere peaceful to calm her down. Piper hoped Frank was helping her stay collected.  
“How long until we can visit her?” Reyna blurted for the fourth time in the past two hours, and for the fourth time, the receptionist sighed. Piper felt bad for her.  
“I don’t know, ma’am,” she replied, typing something into her computer. “I promise I’ll let you know once I’m told.”  
Reyna sunk back into her chair, hugging herself. Her hair had fallen out of its braid and hung limply around her face like spiderweb. Leo and Jason sat on either side of her, eyes constantly scanning the room. Leo’s hands fiddled with copious amounts of bits and bobs, and his foot tapped a fast beat on the floor.  
“Are Percy and Annabeth coming?” Will asked, splitting the silence. Piper glanced at him, and was struck by how _tired_ he looked. There were bags under his eyes that Piper was _sure_ she hadn’t seen earlier, his usually bouncy, curly hair was flat against his head, and he was hunched over. It seemed weird—While Piper had been neighbours with him when they were younger, Will was relatively new to their friend group as a whole, and he hadn’t known much about Bianca’s cancer.  
Then again, this was the same boy who once cried when the mean old dog who once bit Piper’s hand, and lived two doors down from Will, was hit by a car.

“Yeah, they said they were,” Jason replied, rubbing his arms. “Maybe they joined Hazel and Frank.”  
“Maybe.”  
Somewhere in the hospital, a sob echoed loudly. Piper winced. She prayed it wasn’t Persephone or Hades.  
Another torturous hour passed before Reyna suggested they all go for a walk. A murmur of agreement rung through the group, and they all stood up one by one.  
Once Piper was back outside in the fresh air, she felt her nerves die down.  
One deep breath. Two. Three.  
Bianca would be fine.  
Four. Five.  
This had happened before, and she’d survived.  
Six.  
Piper could relax again.  
She walked between Leo and Jason, watching as the shorter of the two kicked pebbles across the pathway. In front of her, Will, Nico and Reyna walked in a wobbly fashion, speaking in wrangled voices to try and ignore the situation.  
“This is a lot,” Jason said. Piper nodded.  
“It had been such a long time since she’d had an episode like this…” She shook herself. “She’ll be okay. This will be okay.”  
“We hope,” Leo added bitterly. He punted a rock the size of Piper’s palm onto the road, and the three of them watched as a car hit it and it rolled on its side. Leo grunted, and hung his head again. “Man, my life is so fucked up at the moment.”  
“What do you mean?” Piper arched her brow. “Just Bianca, or...?”  
“No, I mean—” Leo sighed, frustrated. “I mean at home. And at school. _On top_ of the Bianca situation.”  
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Jason asked softly. Leo shrugged.  
“I don’t know. Maybe. I guess.” He seemed to consider this offer for a moment, then his shoulders sagged, and Piper could practically see him reaching for the surface of whatever he was drowning in. “Yeah, I do.”  
“Well, shoot.”

Leo tucked his middle finger between his index and thumb, lips pulling downward.  
“You can’t tell anybody else, okay?” He blurted. “It’s a secret. Not many people know half of the things I’ll tell you.”  
“Leo…” Piper swallowed thickly and laid a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”  
“Multiple things. My dad’s in town, for one. My biological dad. I haven’t seen him since Mom died.” Leo inhaled, shuddering. “And I know I said earlier today that Silena was waiting to go out with my brother, Charlie, but I was lying. They’ve been dating for ages. And now Silena’s moving out of the state and Charlie gets more and more upset about it every day and it’s really hard to see him like that. And to top it off, Calypso wants to be more than science project partners and I know I’m always joking about wanting to date her but I don’t think I actually do because—” Leo’s face went sickly pale. He gripped his wrists. “Because I think I might be gay.”  
Piper felt like her whole world had come to a pause. She recalibrated, running back over what Leo had just said—his dad was in town, which Piper had a lot of mixed emotions about. Okay. Silena _was_ actually dating Charlie, and Leo had lied about their status. Why? What reason did Leo have to lie about that? And Silena was moving out of state, like Piper, which had made Charlie upset and Leo was worried about him. Understandable—Piper could see why he mightn’t mention that on the daily.  
What was the last part again? Something about Calypso?  
_She wants to be more than lab partners. And Leo… Leo might be gay?_  
“That’s a lot to take in,” Piper admitted. Leo looked away nervously, rubbing his arms.  
“Sorry.”  
“No, no, don’t be sorry!” Jason insisted. “It’s just a lot of information.”

“Leo…” Piper grabbed her friend’s hand and squeezed it, watching as Leo looked away and blinked furiously. “We love you, okay? _So much_. Nothing could change that— _nothing_. No matter if you’ve told a white lie about a senior at our school, or if you don’t want to say anything about your dad, and _especially_ not if you’re gay. You are our _best friend_ , and we’ve known you for years and years and years. It doesn’t matter who you love, because _we_ love _you_. Okay?”  
Leo nodded, but said nothing. Piper watched as his lip wobbled and his eyes, clenched shut, leaked tears.  
“Hey, Leo,” Jason said, as gentle and soft as Piper had ever heard him speak. “Look at me, buddy.”  
Leo glanced up, opening his eyes. They shone with tears, and more and more liquid spilled over his lashes, down his cheeks.  
“What?” Leo’s voice crackled, an octave or two higher than usual. Jason smiled, his eyes crinkling behind his glasses, which he pushed up his nose.  
“Piper’s got the biggest crush on Annabeth I’ve ever seen, more than Percy even had. She literally made out with her at Will’s party. And you were there when I spent a year pining over Percy and staring at him half the time—hell, you were even there when I had my Panic! At the Disco phase, and all three of us know it’s been more about the people singing than the music itself.”  
“Psh.” Leo laughed, wiping his eyes and sobbing at the same time. “Don’t kid yourself, it wasn’t ever a phase. You’re still obsessed.”  
“In _any_ case,” Jason spluttered, his cheeks going red. “My point is, you have no need to be scared of your sexuality. Neither Piper nor I are straight, and we’re not going to hit you down if you aren’t, either. We _never_ would.”  
Leo bit his lower lip and rubbed at his eyes, exhaling in a sharp, loud sob. Piper’s heart squeezed like somebody had grabbed it and squashed it between their fingers.  
“It’s okay, Leo,” Piper whispered, stopping from walking and pulling Leo into a tight hug. She closed her eyes, trying to swallow her tears, which dripped onto Leo’s button-up, white shirt anyway. “It’s okay.”  
Piper cradled Leo’s tiny frame against herself, feeling him shake with the effort to hold himself off from breaking down. She felt Jason’s strong arms wrap around the pair of them.  
“Crybabies,” Jason choked, and Piper reached up and wiped a tear off his chin.

“Dude!” The sound of Will’s loud voice was muffled, and Piper guessed it was because her ears were covered by Jason’s arm and Leo’s head. “Am I missing out on a group hug?”  
“Piss off, Capri-Sun,” Leo mumbled, but his arm slithered out and grabbed Will’s wrist, tugging him in. “Bah, who cares. I like hugs. And I’m sad. And scared for Bianca.”  
“Me too! Don’t you _dare_ think you can leave me out.” Reyna threw herself over Piper, her hands on Jason and Will’s furthest shoulders. “And you, Skeleton.”  
“No way.” Piper heard Nico snap.  
“Come on! It’s _your_ sister we’re crying for!” Will said. Piper giggled.  
“Ugh… _fine_.” Nico sighed, and wormed his way under Will’s arm, burying his head into Reyna. “I’m scared for her, too.”  
Piper was pretty sure people driving past were staring at them, but she didn’t care. The group sobbed into each other—for Bianca _and_ Leo, even if Nico, Will and Reyna didn’t realise.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, guys.”  
Piper collapsed into a chair between Annabeth and Hazel. By this point, she couldn’t even muster the energy to be embarrassed around Annabeth.  
“Where have you been?” Hazel asked. Her voice was gravelly and croaky, and her cheeks had tear stains that reminded Piper of snail trails.  
“Taking a walk, calming down…” Nico stood behind Hazel and kissed the top of her head. “Waiting until we can go see Bee. Are you okay? Have you spoken to Dad and Persephone?”  
Hazel shook her head, tugging on a stray curl.  
“They haven’t left the ward,” she muttered. Nico nodded, smoothing her hair and walking back to the other side of the table. He settled in next to Jason and Will, accepting the water Percy slid across the quaint café table.  
“I think I’ll go get a coffee or something,” Leo said. “Anybody else want anything?”  
“Can you just get me, like… apple juice?” Will asked wearily. “I really want some apple juice, Actually, I really want a McFlurry.”  
“Ooooh, I want a McFlurry too!” Frank’s eyes lit up. Annabeth frowned.  
“Aren’t you lactose intolerant?” She said. Frank pouted, and shrunk back down.  
“I can drive to McDonalds and get some,” Reyna offered, pulling her keys from her pocket. “Pipes, you wanna come with me?”  
“Yes! I do!” Piper scrambled to her feet, suddenly realising she was _sitting next to Annabeth Chase_ , and pushed her chair in.  
Reyna jotted notes on how many orders she’d have to put through, collected money and linked her arm through Piper’s.  
“Let’s go!” she ordered, and she and Piper made their way through the quiet, electric-looking café. Piper had never liked these types of places—cafes or restaurants connected to hospitals. It seemed cruel to attach a place, usually so happy and full of light chatter, to something so dreadful and solemn. Somewhere above them, a patient might be flatlining.  
Piper shivered. The sun had started to sink below the horizon line, and with a sudden realisation, Piper remembered that she hadn’t told her father anything about the current situation. He might be worried _sick_ about where his daughter was, by now.

 _Or,_ Piper’s mind said lazily, coldly. _He’s forgotten you even existed.  
_ Piper mentally slapped herself upside the head. _Stop that!_ She scolded herself.  
“How come you asked me to come?” Piper asked, distracting herself. Reyna unlocked her black Cooper Croydon, and opened the passenger door. Piper cocked her head. “What are you doing? Aren’t you driving?”  
“You’re sixteen, right?” Reyna asked. Piper nodded.  
“Right?”  
“So—” Reyna tossed her keys at Piper, who scrabbled to catch them between her fingers. “You can drive.”  
Piper froze. She shook her head.  
“Uh—no. No _fucking_ way.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because!” Piper forced the keys back into Reyna’s hands. “You’ve saved up for this car since you were twelve! And I’m the shittiest driver in the world, I’ll crash it straight away! Just—I’m not driving it!”  
Reyna looked highly amused. The corners of her lips pulled up, and she opened the passenger door wider. Piper opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Reyna had pushed her into the seat and closed the door. Reyna crossed to the driver’s seat and slid in, starting up the car with a loud growl.  
“Are you shitting me?” Piper snapped. Reyna chortled. “Don’t laugh! I hate you!”  
“You honestly thought I thought you would drive my car,” Reyna said between giggles. “I would _never_ let you drive this car. You’re _so_ bad at driving! Sorry, Pipes. I knew you’d refuse, and I wanted to lighten the mood.”  
Piper grumbled to herself. Reyna sighed in contention and pulled into the traffic.

“How long have you known Bianca?” Reyna asked, adjusting her rear-view mirror. Piper kicked her legs onto the dashboard (then lowered them, remembering how much Bianca hated her doing that and stopping out of respect) and chewed her thumbnail.  
“Years. I couldn’t tell you exactly how long, to be honest,” Piper confessed. She shifted in her seat, gazing ahead of her, out the front window. The road was smooth beneath her, and cars drove around them, all in order like a flock of birds. Piper sighed deeply. Her heart ached, and so did her throat. Her clothes felt itchy and uncomfortable now, and she felt like it had been days since she’d been helping Leo with his equations, not hours.  
“Pipes?” Reyna called softly. “Are you okay?”  
“How…” Piper faltered. She steadied herself and started again. “How do we know if Bianca’s going to be okay or not?”  
“We don’t,” Reyna answered lightly, gently. She flicked her blinker on and turned left. “We have no way of knowing. And I know that’s scary, and I know it’s hard to accept, but we have to be prepared for everything—good or bad.”  
“What happens if she doesn’t pull through?” Piper’s voice was too strained, too scratchy and crackling. She gritted her teeth and forced herself not to cry, clenching her fists on the bottom of her skirt.  
“We commemorate the life she lived,” Reyna said, one hand dropping from the steering wheel to squeeze Piper’s shoulder. “We keep her in our hearts and in our heads, but not in our saddest feelings. From what Nico and Hazel have said, Bianca has _always_ told you never to forget her, but never to dwell in pity for her, either. She knew it was a matter of time before this happened again. She’s been ready and prepared since she was diagnosed, and now it’s our turn to be, too.”  
Piper couldn’t speak. She feared that if she did, she’d burst into tears.  
“Piper, I know what you’re doing,” Reyna pulled into the McDonalds carpark and turned to Piper. Her dark, oak-wood brown eyes swirled with emotions Piper couldn’t begin to process. “Stop it. Just let yourself cry, okay? Life isn’t about holding back and hiding your feelings. It’s about showing them to their whole potential.”

Piper leaned forward and tucked her head into her arms, resting against the dashboard. Her throat stung now. The lump was as big as a grapefruit. Reyna’s hand moved to her head, smoothing down her hair.  
“Don’t hold back.”  
In retrospect, perhaps a McDonalds parking lot was a strange place to have a breakdown, but Piper couldn’t have stopped herself if she’d tried. She wept so forcefully and tremendously that her whole body shook, her hands, balled into fists, quivering next to her head. Her stomach recoiled into a ball, her lungs expanded like a paper bag, her brain stormed with pain, and her heart _hurt_. She cried for a time unknown to her—hours or minutes, she would never know—before finally sitting back up and looking at Reyna with nothing but despair in her body.  
“I look like a mess, don’t I?” She whispered. Reyna scoffed, nodding.  
“Yes—but what does it matter? We’re going through drive-thru anyway. Just sit back while I get the others’ orders, alright? Then I’m going to take you home. Does your dad know you’ve been at the hospital?”  
“No,” Piper responded miserably. She pulled out her phone. “I’ll tell him now. But I don’t want to go home! I want to stay with Nico and Hazel and make sure they’re okay?”  
“Nico sent me a text saying that Hades had rang him to say that he and Persephone would be at the hospital all night.” Reyna pulled back out of the parking space and headed towards the obnoxious drive-thru sign. “So he and Hazel need a place to stay, anyway.”  
“Let’s all stay at somebody’s house, then.” Piper yawned, sinking lower into her seat. She fired off a quick explanation of the last few hours to her father. “Me, Neeks, Leo, Jason, Hazel, you, Percy, Frank, Will, Annabeth…”  
“Frank can’t,” Reyna said. “He told me earlier that he has to attend a dinner for his mother’s service. She has to leave again soon, so he can’t miss it, no matter what. And Jason’s dad will have a fit if he goes anywhere at this short notice. But I can ask the rest of them. Where do you want to stay?”  
“Not my place,” Piper mumbled. “Anywhere but mine. Will’s?”  
“That’s a good idea. His house is huge, for whatever reason, and I remember him saying that his little sister Kayla is at a sleepover tonight, as well as his brother Austin.”  
“We’ll ask.”  
Piper didn’t pay attention to Reyna’s order of McFlurries as they forwarded through, too busy organising the night’s stay with her father and in their friends’ group chat.

 **mctrash** : feelings?  
**mrbluesky** : ye  
**mrbluesky** : wait u mean on th house thng? thas fine. Jus be ready for dad jokes tryn 2 cheer us up.  
**beepbeepbitchurgay** : I don’t know what you’re saying and from now on you’re just going to tell me what you want to say and I’ll type it out for you.  
**mctrash** : did you seriously think I meant just… if you had feelings in general?  
**beepbeepbitchurgay** : will says ‘yes but don’t look at me like that Nico I just wanted to say that I was sad okay shut up’  
**bobthebuilder** : thanks Nico

“What’s everybody saying?” Reyna asked, driving back onto the highway. Piper accepted the trays of ice-cream and balanced them carefully in the backseat, taking her own and mixing her toppings in.  
“Will’s not using as many letters as he probably should, as per usual, so I can barely understand him, but I’m pretty sure he said it was fine.” Piper scooped a spoonful of the ice-cream into her mouth, and it marvelled her how much better she felt. “Did you get one?”  
“Yeah, it’s in the back. Caramel crunch.”  
Piper reached behind her and grabbed Reyna’s order, digging the spoon in and poking it at Reyna, who spluttered.  
“What are you doing? Don’t distract me while I’m driving!”  
“Here comes the aeroplane!”  
“ _PIPER MCLEAN, IF THAT SPOON COMES ANY CLOSER TO MY LIPS WHILE IT’S IN YOUR HAND, I WILL NOT HESITATE TO CRASH THIS CAR INTO A RIVER AND KILL BOTH OF US!”_  
Piper laughed. For a moment, she wasn’t terrified of the future—just for a second, she wasn’t fearfully thinking about Oklahoma, meeting her mother again, Bianca’s condition… none of it. Because, just for a slim moment, Piper didn’t have enough energy or tears left to think about those things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have y'all checked the tags lately....... noticed that they've changed................. just putting it out there  
> EDIT: once a-fucking-gain I forgot that Leo and Jason KNOW the reason Piper is moving. sorry for the confusion.


	8. The Eye of the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> me, writing this chapter: give the kids a break before they suffer a little more

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a filler tbh. there's no real point of it being here other than I wanted to write Naomi Solace into the story. also there's a reason the chapter is called that, lmao, I suck I know

**-Piper-**

“Hi, Mom.”

Will’s house was always a wild place to step into. Often, his little brother Austin was playing his saxophone loudly, or Kayla was practising her archery in the loft, or Billie, the youngest, was running around the house squealing while his father chased him, or Bella, the eldest (at least, of the siblings still living at home), was trying to out-volume Austin on her bass guitar. But today, when Piper slumped in, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering slightly from the now-cool air, the home was soft and quiet. There was no saxophone, or the _twang_ of arrows on bowstrings, or loud, screeching laughter. The gentle sound of low-volume, acoustic guitar that drifted down from upstairs, mixed with calm, tender voices sounding from the kitchen, and that was the only noise.  
“Will?” A woman’s voice called. “Is that you?”  
“Yeah,” Will toed off his sneakers. “Also Piper, Nico, Reyna, Hazel, Annabeth, Percy and Leo. Surprise.”  
There was no excitement in Will’s voice when he said ‘surprise’. Nico sidled up next to him, pulling his hood off his head as a forty-give-or-take-year-old woman with chestnut hair and dark, brown skin appeared around the corner. Her eyes were misty and hid something like sorrow, and her face softened as she hurried forward.  
“Will told me about Bianca,” she said, sweeping Nico and Hazel into a big hug. “I’m so sorry. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.”  
“Thank you, Naomi,” Nico said, since Hazel was crying hard again and couldn’t speak a word. Naomi Solace let the two teens go and smoothed down Hazel’s hair.  
“It’s nice to see you all again,” she smiled sadly. “Piper, how’s your dad handling Oklahoma?”  
“Much better than I am,” Piper replied. “I don’t want to go.” She was grateful for the sound of guitar, however quiet. It made things slightly less morbid.

  
Hazel was still sniffling and weeping. Percy slung an arm around her shoulders, patting her arm with a look on his face that Piper probably saw much more often than she saw Percy’s neutral face—a look that clearly said, I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing-but-I’m-going-to-pretend-I-do-and-just-wing-the-hell-out-of-this.  
“Hey, honey, it’s okay,” Naomi soothed as Percy wrapped his other arm around Hazel, whispering indistinctively and calmly to her. “Percy, dear, why don’t you take Hazel into the bathroom and she can wash her face and cool down?”  
“Good idea,” Percy replied. “Also, hi. Haven’t seen you in a while.”  
Then he led Hazel down one of the many hallways and disappeared. Naomi pursed her lips in pity.  
“Do you know when she’ll be out, Nico?” She asked. Nico shook his head.  
“Not really… dad sent me a text on the way over that said she was probably going to survive until the morning, but after that… we’re unsure.”  
“I’m so sorry,” Naomi breathed, brushing dust that wasn’t really there off her blouse. “Well, like I said, you can stay with us until she’s out.”  
“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault,” Nico replied glumly. Piper knew this was an automated response by now—so many people had apologised for Bianca’s cancer that he’d basically been programmed over time to just say ‘not your fault’. “And thank you. Again.”  
Naomi smiled sadly. Annabeth cleared her throat, and Piper jumped out of her skin—she’d completely forgotten Annabeth was here.  
“We’re sorry for coming over at such a late notice, Mrs Solace,” she said, tucking a curl of wispy blonde hair behind her ear. “But Piper and Reyna thought it would be a good idea to… not be alone, tonight.”

Piper’s face flushed hot. She felt a little bad that she was bringing everybody over to a house that wasn’t even hers, but Naomi was the type of mother who was always offering to have her children’s friends over, and there was no _way_ Piper was going to bring her friends over to a ‘home’ like hers that was empty, spare for the sound of her father gushing to Aphrodite.  
Naomi sighed, and turned to Will.  
“Will, let your friends sit down. Dinner’s almost ready. Turn on Netflix and just calm down a little, okay?” Will nodded as his mother’s warm eyes (eyes that reminded Piper so much of her father’s) crinkled with compassion.  
“Okay.”  
Piper stood still as Reyna, Annabeth, Will, Nico and Leo started talking in low voices and wandered to the living room. She couldn’t quite bring herself to get moving yet.  
“Piper? How are you holding up?” Naomi reached out, placing a hand on Piper’s shoulder. Piper leaned into the warmth of her fingers.  
“I don’t know…” Piper confessed despairingly. “I mean, it was bad enough before this happened, when I was struggling with the move to Oklahoma and something that happened between me and Annabeth, plus I’ve got this huge secret that feels like a massive weight on my shoulders… now Bianca’s in the hospital and I don’t even know if she’s going to survive.” Piper was shocked to feel that there were no tears spiking behind her eyes, or a huge lump in her throat, this time—just a surge of emptiness coursing through her blood.  
“Will’s said that the past few months have been difficult for you,” Naomi said. “In between the _countless_ hours my son spends talking our ears off about his biology classes and Nico this and Nico that, he often mentions that he’s worried about you. He says you’ve been so distant and dreading Oklahoma, and you’ve been consumed with your—ah— _issues_ , with Annabeth… he’s very concerned for you, Piper.”

Piper’s ears felt hot, and she knew they were turning as red as the flesh of a plum.  
“He talks too much,” she whispered.  
“Yes, sometimes he does. But the things he said about how you’re coping at the moment… I want to make sure you’re okay.”  
Piper clenched her teeth. She and Will had lived on the same street until he’d moved out when they were thirteen, and Naomi had been her stand-in mother (as well as Sally Jackson) when she’d never had her own. It made her horribly nostalgic and guilty to see her fussing over her again, like she had whenever Piper would graze her knee skateboarding.  
“I’m fine,” Piper lied, hot guilt taking a hold of her heart and twisting it like it was the top of a bottle. Naomi’s eyebrows knitted together.  
“If you say so…” She winced at the sound of a crash in the kitchen, followed by a shrieking laugh and somebody saying: ‘be quiet, Billie, remember what we said earlier?’. “Piper, I know this is hard for you to grasp—you’re so young—but one of the hardest parts of being a parent is hearing that your child is sick, or hurt, or _is_ hurting, or suffering, and you can’t do much to fix it. And though you’re not my child by blood, when you spend years having somebody sleep over and come straight to your house from school more often that she goes home to her own… it’s hard _not_ to consider them—you—your child. I’ve watched you grow up alongside Will. I took you to the hospital when you cut your forehead on that sharp branch, because your father was working and I was looking after you, anyway. I helped you look for your pet hamster when he ran away. And now I’m watching you, basically from the sidelines, as you get ready to move to a new state, deal with crumbling friendships and sexuality, plus struggle with the real reason you’re leaving New York.”  
Piper choked on her tongue.  
“How do you know my dad’s work isn’t the real reason I’m moving?”  
Naomi shook her head.  
“Call it mother’s instinct,” she said. “My point is, it’s hard to watch somebody you’ve looked after for so many years go through hardships like your own. And there’s nothing much I can do about it all, except talk to you now and make sure you know that I’m here for you.” Naomi paused, like she was considering saying her next point. “We all are. Even Annabeth, though I know that you’re having a hard time with her right now.”

Piper stared at the ground, overwhelmed with emotions but unable to show any of them.  
“Thank you, Naomi,” she whispered, looking up again. “So much.”  
Naomi pet her cheek reassuringly.  
“Things will get better, Piper, I promise they will. These things don’t last forever. Your friendship with Annabeth will be fixed, whatever’s going on at home will sort itself out, and who knows? Maybe you’ll convince your father to stay in New York.”  
Piper smiled, and however small the gesture may have been, it was one hundred per cent genuine. She stayed still for a while, before her smile transformed into a smirk.  
“Does Will _really_ talk about Nico all the time?” She asked, feigning innocence. Naomi chuckled.  
“Oh yeah. Look, now you can tease him all you want.” She pulled her hand away, and Piper instinctively shivered, already missing the warmth her skin had brought. “Oh, are you cold?”  
“A little.”  
“You really should bring your jacket everywhere, dear,” Naomi scolded, but her mouth twitched upwards. “Go with the others. Relax. Try not to think about your problems, _or_ Bianca. WILL!”  
“What?” Will yelled back. Piper didn’t bother flinching—the yelling never meant somebody was mad in this house. It was simply a large (very large—Piper was pretty sure it almost rivalled her own) place, and yelling was the best way to communicate.  
“Can you get Piper a sweater? I don’t want her catching a cold!”  
“But I’m comfortable and I don’t want to move! Piper knows where my room is. Piper, I’m too comfy, just grab whatever sweater you want.”  
Naomi scoffed. “That boy is unbelievable. Honestly, now I want you to tease him. He deserves it.”  
Piper snickered, then raced upstairs, taking them two at a time. The _creak_ of the fifth stair up was so familiar, Piper almost forgot this wasn’t her house.  
She wished it was.  
She wouldn’t have to be so fucking worried about Aphrodite if it was.

* * *

“Should we, like… get a bed for her, or something?”

Piper lifted her head. She’d been lying on her side at the base of a couch, head propped up on her elbow, watching _Ocean’s Eleven_ with no real interest.  
“Who?” She asked. Percy gestured to Hazel, who had tired herself out crying, and was now curled up beneath a blanket, sleeping soundly. Piper sat up.  
“Probably.” She angled her head to look behind her, meeting Will and Reyna’s eyes. “Wanna go grab a mattress or two?”  
“We should probably get enough for all of us,” Reyna replied, face scrunched up as she counted the people in the room. “There’s eight of us. So… four?”  
“Two sofas that can fit anybody shorter than five-foot-five,” Will added. “So, Leo and Hazel might be able to sleep there. They’re very comfortable.” He turned to his side, where Nico was beginning to nod off. “We _are_ going to have to get up, though.”  
Nico grunted, before standing up and stretching.  
“Alright,” he mumbled.  
“Okay, so three mattresses. Right? Big ones. Two to a bed, or something. I don’t know.”  
“I can curl into an armchair,” Nico offered. “I’m small enough. Or Leo can.”  
“No way, dude,” Leo tore his eyes away from the screen. His hair was so tousled and dishevelled, if Piper hadn’t have been with him all day, she would have thought he’d been skydiving. “I’m too reckless. I’d, like, throw myself onto my head. I _can_ sleep on one of the couches, though.”  
“Alright,” Reyna tapped her chin. “Three beds—two to a mattress, except the third. Right?”  
“Seems right,” Piper replied.  
“Great. I’ll take the one on its own.”  
“I’m not sharing with Percy,” Annabeth said, and Piper’s head snapped to where she was sitting in an armchair— _again_. Did she sit anywhere else? “Did that once. Never again. No offense, Perce.”  
“What did I do?” Percy pouted. Annabeth scoffed.  
“Dude, you kick in your sleep more than anybody I’ve ever met. If I’ve had to endure it once, I don’t have to again.”  
“Shot not!” Piper exclaimed, scrambling to get away from Percy who rolled his eyes.  
“Oh, honestly. Cowards.” He glanced at Will, mouth set challengingly. He fingered the drawstring of his hoodie. “Dare to take the challenge, Solace?”

“Only because I don’t have the balls to argue with Annabeth or Piper,” Will said. Piper grinned, and _god_ , it felt good to just relax a little. Nico had received a call from Persephone an hour or so after they’d arrived at Will’s to say Bianca was in a stable condition, and her highest chances were that she’d recover soon.  
_But there’s still a chance she won’t_ , a voice inside Piper’s cranium nagged. Piper scowled.  
Ever since Nico had broken the news with a beaming smile, she’d had an annoying little buzzing in the back of her mind, like something was trying to reach her, but couldn’t. She’d dropped her tense shoulders in relief and had recovered herself, but even so, that irritating noise just wouldn’t go away…  
_Stop that_ , Piper scolded herself. _Bianca’s going to be fine. Stop stressing over every tiny thing. Naomi was right—things will get better. So will Bianca.  
_ As Piper followed Will and Reyna towards the guest bedrooms and linen cupboard, she drank in the atmosphere of Will’s home. The guitar had stopped a while ago, but it was quickly replaced with the sound of a speaker playing grunge rock, steadily getting quieter as the night got later. Piper guessed it was Bella, Will’s older sibling. Will had mentioned that Austin and Kayla were gone for the night, which meant the laughter and storybook-reading on the other side of the house was coming from Billie’s room.  
Piper could remember when Will’s eldest half-brothers, both with different parents still to both him, Bella and each other, moved out. They were living with each other now, some five hours away from home, but they visited every Christmas. When they _had_ lived with the rest of the family, they’d added to the noise, and it was almost too much for Piper to deal with. Lee liked to play his cello hours past Piper’s bedtime when she was much younger, and she liked to fall asleep to the deep sound of it echoing through the street. Michael, on the other hand, was just a very loud person in general; he stomped when he walked and his natural speaking volume was ten times louder than the sound of Austin’s saxophone. The house had been pandemonium, and even thought it still _was_ rather chaotic most of the time after they’d left, Piper recalled what it been like and was grateful she didn’t usually visit during Christmas time anymore.

Lugging the two mattresses, one air bed and hordes of blankets back to the living room was a challenge, and Piper caught herself wishing they’d brought Annabeth to help them.  
It was around that time when Piper realised that if Reyna was sleeping on her own and Percy was with Will, then that only left one person Piper would be sleeping next to—  
Annabeth.  
Annabeth Chase.  
_Wonderful_.  
“Unbelievable,” Piper hissed, dropping the mattress she was helping Will carry. Will gasped in pain as it bounced onto his foot.  
“Piper!” He glared down at her— _damn_ that boy’s height, it made it impossible to be intimidating at any point. “The hell was that for?”  
“The bed-sharing situation,” Piper grumbled. She picked the bed back up and they kept waddling down the hall.  
“I know, I’m going to wake up with bruises tomorrow morning!” Will whined. Piper screwed up her face.  
“What? No, I meant I’m sharing with Annabeth!” Piper huffed. “This sucks.”  
“Oh!” Will shoved the mattress into Piper, who scowled at him and pushed it harder towards him, hoping he’d topple over. He didn’t. “Oof. Well, like I said before, there’s no way I’m arguing against Annabeth for her to share with Percy because I watched her argue with Leo once and that was _scary_ , but maybe you could swap with me?”  
Piper considered this. Option one: share a mattress with the girl she had a huge crush on, made out with, and now had a broken friendship with. Option two: share a mattress with Percy fucking Jackson, who was known to kick like he fought in his sleep and also took all the blankets for himself.  
Okay. Piper _might_ be able to deal with Annabeth Chase sharing her mattress (it was a King size, after all), but she could _not_ deal with blanket hogs.  
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Piper finally replied. “I want to keep my blankets.”  
Will sighed in dismay.  
“Well, it was worth a try.”

They made it back to the living room and dropped the mattress. Reyna had single-handedly hauled both the other mattress _and_ the folded-up air bed, somehow, and she and Percy were taking turns jumping up and down on the pump to blow up the air mattress.  
“About time!” Annabeth looked up from her phone, smirking. Piper’s heart rolled over itself. She hadn’t noticed earlier, but Annabeth was wearing the sweater Piper had made her as a birthday gift earlier this year—a deep, cherry-red one that bagged almost long enough to cover her shorts when Annabeth wore any, and stitched with a patch that said, ‘sounds dumb, go on’ on the front. Piper had knit it herself, and she was rather proud of it. Originally, she’d wanted to just buy her something, but after Annabeth had handmade her an entire photo-board bigger than Piper herself for Christmas, and pegged it with fairy lights and photos Piper had taken of their friend group over the years… well, she thought it would be cruel not to make her something of equal heartfelt value.  
“Aw, the movie ended while we were gone?” Piper finally looked away from Annabeth, sure her cheeks were as red as the jumper. She frowned. “What happened?”  
“We can re-watch it another day,” Will said, stifling a yawn. “But tomorrow, we have school.”  
“Fuck off!” Leo burst. “Don’t remind me! I hate you so much, Solace.”  
Piper looked to where somebody had laid Hazel across one of the couches and tucked her beneath a blanket and very cosy-looking doona. She smiled softly. After everything Hazel had to go through today, she was happy the poor girl could rest, now.  
“Did Nico fall asleep too?” Piper asked. Percy laughed.  
“Yeah, he took one of the blankets Naomi brought in, got in that armchair and just said ‘goodnight, losers’ and passed out. I think he was pretty exhausted.”  
_Well, no wonder_ , Piper thought. If _she_ had had a sibling and their dormant cancer made its way back, she’d most certainly be as fatigued as Nico and Hazel. It was a miracle neither of them had fallen asleep on the way to Will’s place.  
Piper didn’t bother getting changed. Reyna was taking her home early tomorrow to get ready for school, anyway—no point in borrowing more clothes she’d forget to give back until the day before she moved to Oklahoma. Instead, she just took off the watch she’d been sporting since she’d gone to Jason’s that morning (it really seemed like that had been days ago) and crawled beneath the covers of the mattress Reyna and Percy had set up.

“What time are we leaving tomorrow morning, Reyna?” She mumbled, eyes already drifting closed against her will. She really _was_ tired.  
“Six. Maybe five thirty. Be ready.”  
Piper nodded. Around her, the dim noise of her friends readying themselves for sleep and the muffled music wafting from Bella’s room upstairs began to pulse out, and her brain shut itself down for the night.  
But Piper had never been one to fall asleep deeply, nor quickly.  
While the actual sensation of sleep overcame her, Piper was still acutely aware of her surroundings. She couldn’t open her eyes without something to properly wake her up, and she certainly couldn’t move herself consciously, but for whatever reason, she _could_ feel the mattress dip on the other side, could feel the gentle jolts of somebody’s steps against the ground (judging by the weight to them, it was either Will or Percy; there was no way Leo, the shortest and scrawniest boy Piper had ever met, could be that heavy), could even feel the differentiating vibrations in the air as somebody with a deep voice (that _had_ to be Percy) muttered something she couldn’t understand. The sense of silence enveloped her—she was _finally_ at peace.  
Almost.  
It was such a shame that annoying little buzz wouldn’t leave Piper’s head.  
Just as Piper started to give in to full sleep, the movement of the mattress and the tingle on the back of her neck that told her somebody was _very_ close to her jerked her awake. She frowned. Perfect. Now she wasn’t even at that comforting stage of _almost_ being asleep. She was just very, _very_ mindful of the presence incredibly close behind her.  
The voice that whispered, so quietly Piper almost didn’t catch it, was the biggest surprise, however. It was a voice Piper knew well—a voice that gave Piper a reckless heart every time she heard it.  
“Piper?” Annabeth Chase was too close for Piper to ignore. “Can we talk?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nobody reads the notes at the end of a chapter, i could say anything i wanted to right now and nobody would notice. but I'm just gonna complain about how wild I am with updates. waiting a month for a new chapter or four days? the world can only guess.


	9. Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry

**-Piper-**

It was the eye of the storm. Piper, three days into the future, wished she could go back to that night at Will’s and just _stay there_ , because things had collapsed back on top of Piper like a tonne of cement the day after.  
Piper had been so sure that things were looking up for good. Bianca was still alive, Leo had been reassured, and Annabeth had talked to her.  
_Annabeth had talked to her.  
And it had been awesome_.

“Piper,” Annabeth Chase was too close for Piper to ignore. “Can we talk?”  
Piper rolled over, rubbing her eyes lazily. Her stomach churned. When she opened her eyes, Annabeth’s face was a hair’s width away from her own, and those startling, grey eyes that Piper thought looked just like a lake in winter were wide awake. Piper forced her heart to go back to its normal pace—to no avail.  
“About what?” She mumbled quietly, eyes heavy. Part of her had been waiting eagerly for this, and wanted so badly to just talk to Annabeth, no matter what they talked about it—but part of her was too tired, too _energy-deprived_ , to do this.  
Annabeth’s stare never wavered. Her curls cascaded across her shoulder, and Piper’s hand twitched, wanting with its own mind to reach out and comb through her hair.

“What you said on Thursday…” Annabeth’s jaw shifted and set. “I’ve been thinking about it. And first of all… I’m _so_ sorry. I interrupted you before you had a chance to finish what you were saying, then I pushed you away. And I guess… I guess I was just thinking…”  
Piper didn’t want to feel sympathetic. Hell, she was supposed to be mad! But Annabeth was apologising, and, god… she could do baby seal eyes almost as well as Percy could. Besides, Piper knew what it was like to have everything to say, but no idea how to say it. She knew what it was like to have a lump in your throat while you were trying to explain something. And against her will, she was _sympathetic for Annabeth Chase_.  
“I’m sorry,” Annabeth laughed haughtily, quietly. “I should be able to talk about this. I _need_ to talk about this.”  
“It’s okay,” Piper assured her, pinching her wrists to keep herself awake. “I know how it feels.”  
“Jesus…” Annabeth took a deep breath, closing her eyes and opening them again. Piper had never felt more drawn into the colour grey before—then again, Annabeth’s eyes were the kind of grey you saw in a storm; constantly shifting, deep, clouded, like she was always thinking about something you would never consider. “Okay. Okay.”

“I guess I was just thinking, when you told me I kissed you… I was being honest, you know. I didn’t remember. What I _do_ remember from that night is drinking for fun at first. And you know how I get really passionate and my emotions, whether sad, angry or happy, run high when I drink?”  
“Yeah,” Piper said. “You’re a lightweight.”  
“I know. Anyway, I started thinking about my breakup with Percy, and I was ranting to… god, _somebody_ , I don’t remember who. Jason, Will, maybe my cousin Magnus… I don’t know. They were blond. I was tipsy. Anyway, I was ranting to them about the breakup, and I just… I got so _angry_. At myself, for continuing the relationship even when I _knew_ I wasn’t happy in it, and only just breaking it off. At Percy, because he kept staring at Jason. Just… at _everything_! And so I drank more and more and whoever I was talking to was _trying_ to stop me—so it was probably Jason—but I wouldn’t listen. After Leo started serenading himself… I blacked out. My body operated, but my brain was gone. Whatever I did wasn’t a conscious effort. And what you told me… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Piper couldn’t speak. Or think properly, really. Trying to comprehend what Annabeth was saying was like trying to find an ink blot on a dark piece of fabric.  
“So… you didn’t mean it? Any of it?” Piper could feel the tiny shred of hope she’d recovered five minutes ago disappearing. Annabeth frowned.  
“I’m going to be honest with you—I’m not sure. When I drink, my emotions are amplified, not created from nothing.”  
“Wait—hold on.” Piper screwed up her face, ring her hardest to just _think_. “So… you might have meant it. But you don’t know?”  
“Yup.”  
Piper was beginning to feel very aware of how close Annabeth was. She could count the hairs in her (naturally perfect, that was _so_ unfair) eyebrows. And she was also very aware of how sweaty her palms were, how shaky her legs were, how quickly and heavily her heart was thumping. She swallowed her fear.  
“And if, theoretically,” Annabeth continued, voice even quieter now, but just as bold. “I was to kiss you, sober, with full intentions… how would you feel about it?”  
Piper froze. Her hands trembled; she grabbed her forearms to steady them.  
“Mixed feelings,” she squeaked. It was a lie, but since Annabeth was being truthful about not truly knowing how she felt about Piper, it was easier on Piper if she pretended she was the same.

“Then I suppose we both need to figure it out, huh?” Annabeth breathed. Piper could feel her hushed words on her nose. She couldn’t say where Annabeth was looking, but Piper was certainly staring at her lips, unable to stop herself.  
“Huh.”  
Annabeth was _so close_. Piper’s head spun like a ballerina who had been practising since they were a child, and her legs shivered. She could feel Annabeth getting closer and closer, and soon enough the distance between them was so little, their noses brushed.  
And then Percy Jackson –Percy _fucking_ Jackson—decided to make his presence known again.  
“Guys, that English essay is due _tomorrow_ , and I’ve written _five words_.”  
Piper heard Annabeth sigh.  
“Shut _up_ , Jackson, some of us are fucking sleeping!” Leo groaned. “If you’re going to talk, at least have the decency to be quiet, like Annabeth and Piper! I can’t hear what they’re saying! Be like them.”

Piper felt the back of her neck flush and prickle with heat. She hadn’t realised Leo would _hear_ them.  
_At least he didn’t know what we were talking about_.  
“Percy, you’ve got the date wrong, anyway,” Piper heard Will mumble through a yawn. “It’s due next Monday. Now can you give back at least half of the blankets and go back to sleep?”  
Percy grumbled something Piper couldn’t understand, Silence made its sweet return, and she felt her brain ebb back into that middle-stage. Try as she might, she couldn’t manage to pry her eyes back open, even when Annabeth shifted her head to look at her again.  
“Goodnight, Piper,” Annabeth whispered, and Piper felt her roll over again, taking her warmth with her, but leaving Piper with hope she hadn’t known she could have.  
Sleep finally overcame her, and she drifted off.

* * *

 

As per usual, just when things were taking a turn for the better, _just_ when things were beginning to climb to the top of the roller-coaster again, they started to come screaming down again.  
A storm brewed outside, and Piper watched the magnificent lightning illuminate the sky. She fanned herself with a paper fan she’d made from a page of her notebook. Wednesday classes weren’t too bad—she finished with English, and all they were doing was watching a film Piper had been forced to view (by none other than Leo Valdez himself) hundreds of times before, ‘for educational purposes, of course’. Besides, Wednesday was yearbook committee day, and Piper would get a chance to talk to Annabeth again.  
“Oh, that one was nice,” Drew Tanaka pointed outside as another flash of light streaked across the rolling grey clouds, not bothering to keep her voice down. Piper nodded.  
“Mm. I like sheet lightning.” She swatted a fly away from her hair. Drew swivelled in her chair to the right of Piper and grinned.

“Happy hump day,” she said sarcastically. “God, I cannot _wait_ to blow this place. Not long left.”  
“I’d be saying the same thing, if I wasn’t moving out of state the second school goes out for the Summer,” Piper replied. She’d known Drew since kindergarten, and even though she wouldn’t classify her as a ‘best friend’, she was definitely an acquaintance.  
“You’re moving out of _state_?” Drew’s eyebrows flew into her raven-black hair. Piper took note to ask her how she got them in such a defined shape one day.  
“Well, I’m trying to convince my dad to stay, but he’s pretty cemented in the idea of going,” Piper folded another fan and threw it onto Drew’s desk. “Work. And stuff. That’s why we’re going.”  
“Mclean, Tanaka, are you paying attention?” The substitute at the front seemed to have eyes like glowing coal, which was pretty scary to Piper, but Drew didn’t seem to care.  
“Of course, Ms.” She turned back to Piper. “That’s strange. I’m moving, too.”  
Piper choked on the water she’d just been taking a sip of.

“Seriously?” She coughed. Drew nodded thoughtfully. “I can see you thinking. Don’t try too hard, you’ll hurt yourself.”  
Drew scoffed.  
“I _can_ think, Mclean, how do you suppose I would be at this school, otherwise?” She inspected her nails, which looked fine to Piper, though Drew seemed to have a problem with one of them. “Yes. I’m moving. Out of state, like you are. Where are _you_ going?”  
“Oklahoma.” Piper wasn’t dumb. She remembered what Leo had said about Silena Beauregard moving, too. People moved from this school all the time—but not often did they move out of state, and it was _extremely_ rare that _three_ people would be moving at a similar time.  
“That’s where _I’m_ going!” Drew’s glittering brown eyes widened to the size of saucers. She slumped back in her chair. “Wild. What a coincidence.”

_Is she fucking serious?_

“Isn’t it a little… I don’t know, _weird_ , that we’re both moving at a similar time, to the same place?” Piper scooted her chair more towards Drew. “I mean, it’s crazy. Nobody _ever_ moves out of state from this school. We’re all too grounded in New York to go anywhere.”  
“Just seems like a dumb thing to me,” Drew muttered, pulling a nail file from nowhere (must have been where the glitter came from during her slideshow) and smoothing her thumbnail. “I would say that ‘at least we’ll be in the same grade’, but I can’t. My dad thinks it would be a good idea if I just repeated this year. Since we’re moving after we leave, I’ll be starting when school goes back for another year. Guess I’ll be a junior for another year.”

Piper flinched as the shrill bell screeched through the room. She began to pack her stationary back into her bag.  
“I _still_ think it’s weird.” She shoved her notebook behind the rest of her collection. Drew rolled her eyes. “I mean, I heard from Leo that Silena Beauregard is moving out of New York, too. Isn’t that too much to be a coincidence?”  
This seemed to catch Drew’s attention. She paused in her action of adjusting her belt, and narrowed her eyes at Piper.  
“Silena Beauregard? Head of the cheerleaders?”  
“Do we know any _other_ Silena Beauregards?”  
Drew’s lips pursed. She pointed upwards, like she had something to say, but before she could, somebody tapped Piper on the shoulder.

“Oh, hey Reyna,” she greeted, then turned back around. “Sorry, I’m busy. I’ll be at yearbook soon.”  
“It’s not about that,” Reyna’s voice was unnaturally grave. “I just got a text from Hazel. You know how she and Nico have been off school all week?”  
“Uh… yeah?” Piper’s heart sank. _No. No, no, no, no, no._ “Weren’t they visiting Bianca?”  
“For a day. She’s back home now.”  
“That’s not right.” That nagging voice returned. Piper tried her best to ignore it. “She should be there for another week. Why’s she back?”  
Reyna’s face is grim.  
“Well… I don’t know. But Hazel said Bianca has to talk to you. Like, now. I’m driving you there now. Hazel used many exclamation points.”  
_No._

Piper felt clammy. She wiped her hands on her jeans and glanced at Drew, who’s face had gone unusually pale. “I’ll, um… continue this later. Tomorrow. Maybe. I’ll see you then.”  
“Wait—” Drew whipped out a sharpie from—well, God only knows where. She scrawled something on a sheet of torn-out paper and handed it to Piper. “We can continue it tonight, if you’re up for that. That’s my number.”  
Piper barely had time to thank her before Reyna whisked her out of the classroom, out of the school doors and towards her car. Piper’s lungs felt empty and cold. She couldn’t speak.  
She didn’t remember the ride to the Hades/Levesque household; just the sinking feeling when she saw Bianca’s, Hades’s and Persephone’s car all in the driveway at the same time—a rare occurrence.  
“I’ll wait here, okay?” Reyna turned off the ignition. “Don’t rush.”  
Piper nodded, and stepped out, trembling as she made her way to the front door. The bell she pressed seemed to echo forever. The footsteps coming towards the door seemed to be as slow as a zombie’s.  
The door swung open to reveal Nico, looking like he’d stepped out of a morgue. His face was tinged grey, and the bags under his eyes were more pronounced than ever. His eyes looked red and fatigued, his hair hung limply, and his shoulders caved towards themselves.

“Hey, Pipes,” he croaked. Piper stepped forward, wrapping him in a hug before she could think about what she was doing.  
“What’s going on?” She whispered. Nico shook his head.  
“She—she can tell you. I don’t—I don’t—”  
He didn’t seem to be able to finish. Piper withdrew to see him shakily wiping his eyes. He inhaled deeply.  
“Sorry. She’s upstairs, in her room.” Nico gulped back something, and slouched in the direction Piper knew his room was. Piper readied herself.

 _Whatever news she has, I’ve heard worse._  
_I’ve heard worse._  
I’ve heard worse.  
She repeated the mantra as she tiptoed upstairs, gripping the handrail with so much intensity she could have snapped it.

 _I’ve heard worse_.  
Voices seeped from under Bianca’s bedroom door like oil. Piper waited (im)patiently for them to stop. She didn’t count how long it took for the sounds to dim (a minute and fifty-three seconds). She didn’t take not of the number of steps somebody was taking to get to the door (seven). And she _didn’t_ listen or pay attention to the final words that person said (‘make a list. We’ll see if we can get through it soon.’).  
Bianca’s door creaked open. Hades looked just as bad as Nico.  
“Hello, Piper,” he said, weariness oozing off every syllable. He sighed. “Be gentle. She’s still… recovering.”  
Piper barely paid attention, but she nodded anyway. Hades closed his eyes, as if looking around was a pain unbeknownst to most humans, and walked away.  
_I’ve heard worse_.

Piper crept into Bianca’s room, clinging to the doorframe. Her stomach writhed with nausea.  
Bianca half laid, half sat in her bed, head resting against the wall, eyes trained on the pattern of fairy lights on her ceiling. Her fingers traced delicate circles on her forearms.  
“Bianca,” Piper sobbed. Bianca’s glazed eyes snapped to the doorway, her head lifting off the wall. She smiled weakly.  
“Hey, Beauty Queen.”  
Piper thought she might burst into a full set of tears, but she plodded over anyway. Bianca pat the edge of her bed, and Piper took the invitation, sitting down.  
“I was so scared,” Piper whispered shakily. Bianca grabbed her hand.  
“I know you were.” Her voice was too gravelly, too raspy. “Jason said you were terrified.”  
“Jason was here?” Piper withdrew a sharp intake of breath. Bianca shrugged.  
“He dropped by to see how I was this morning. Er… I told him what I’m about to tell you then. He seemed to take it well enough.”

“What’s going on?” Piper asked, blinking heavily to keep her tears at bay. Bianca bit her lip, looking away, but keeping her hold of Piper’s hand.  
“The leukaemia is back fully,” she confessed with heavy breath. “And I need to go back onto chemo if I want to stay alive. It’s been back for a while, I just haven’t noticed.”  
“How long?”  
“A year.”  
Piper suppressed another sob. She clenched her teeth, swallowed her emotions, and took a deep breath.  
“Shit.”  
“Yeah. And…” Bianca looked like she might be sick. “This is the hardest part.”  
Piper hated how long the pause Bianca took lasted.  
“Piper… I’m not going to take the chemo.”  
It was like a trapdoor had opened up beneath Piper without warning and sent her pummelling. The air was knocked out of her lungs, and her heart skipped two beats.

“What?” Piper barely managed a whisper. Bianca wiped away a tear and smiled sadly.  
“Yeah. I know. It’s just that… I’ve been on chemo before, _twice_ , and it was the worst experience of my life. I felt awful. I was never comfortable. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, without being in pain. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. And clearly… it didn’t work those times.”  
Piper buried her head in her hands so Bianca wouldn’t see her crying. Bianca continued, her voice wobbly.  
“I just… my point is, I can’t live my whole life on chemo. And it wouldn’t even be a long life. It’s too miserable.” Piper felt Bianca reach forward and scoop her into her arms. She curled into her, weeping silently, feeling her tears seep through her fingers. “It’s okay, Pipes. I made the decision. I’m not losing this battle—I’m winning in my own way.”  
“I don’t want you to go,” Piper cried, sobbing heavily. Bianca held her tighter.  
“I know. But I’ve talked to Hades, and Nico, and Bianca, and Persephone… this is the only way I’m going to possibly be happy for the rest of my life.”  
“But how long is that?” Piper burst, looking up through wet eyelashes. Bianca stroked her hair.  
“A month. Maybe two. I’m going to be able to get up and about in another few days, and I’ll be like that for maybe… three weeks? Possibly four, if I last the two months.”

Piper clutched Bianca’s waist, tucking her head into the crook of her neck. She never wanted to let her go. This was _Bianca_ —the girl she’d grown up with, as much as she’d grown up with Will, Jason and Leo. Bianca, who taught Piper how to read chapter books. Bianca, who was _so sick, and who was going to die before the year ended_.  
“I’m going to be staying here the whole time.” Bianca was crying, too, now. “I want to die in a place I love. But before I lose all my energy, I’m going to try and tick everything off my bucket list.”  
Piper wiped her cheeks and sat up. Her tears had stained Bianca’s shirt.  
“What are you starting with?” She asked miserably. Bianca gave a small, depressing smile.  
“I’m going to write a letter to Becky Albertalli,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to thank her for the book she wrote.  
“Oh— _Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda_ , right?” Piper liked that book. She was pretty sure it was in a moving box somewhere.  
“Yeah. I’ve read it once or twice, but the real reason I’m thankful for it is because of how it helped Nico. I don’t think he would have ever had the courage to tell us he was gay if it wasn’t for the book.”

Piper nodded. Her throat stung again—she needed to learn how to stop feeling like she needed to cry every two seconds.  
“Hey…” Bianca pulled Piper again. “I’m still going to be here for a while. But I need you to do one thing for me once I’m gone.”  
Piper made a humming noise, cracked and shivering.  
“Make sure Nico doesn’t go back to what he was like when I was first diagnosed. It’s going to be hard for him, and he’s going to get pretty bad again. He’ll try and shut you guys and eventually, he’ll distance himself. But I need you to stop him before he even gets a chance to do that. Promise me.”  
Piper opened her eyes to see Bianca sticking her pinky finger out. With a final, quiet sob, Piper reached out and intertwined her own with Bianca’s, gripping to it like it would keep Bianca alive.

“I _promise_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :')  
> in other news, this book is probably... halfway done? thereabouts? I don't really know tbh


	10. Cinnamon Beneath the Lips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> problems and also things that are quite the opposite

**-Piper-**

“I’m telling you, Dad, I _have_ to stay! I promised Bee I would look after Nico!”

Tristan’s face was twisted with pain. Piper could feel hot tears streaking down her cheeks and leaving a trail, but she didn’t bother wiping them off. Her clenched fists shook. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this angry, this _devastated.  
_ “You should know not to make promises you cannot keep, Piper,” Tristan finally replied. Piper slammed her hands onto the benchtop.  
“Bianca is going to _die_ , Dad! About the same time we move to Oklahoma!” Piper choked on a fresh wave of sobs. “How you can you keep saying we have to go!”  
“We can postpone moving.” Tristan set down his mug and rubs the bridge of his nose. “But we cannot cancel it. We can stay here until… well, until—”  
“Until Bianca kicks the bucket?” Piper was yelling now. She couldn’t think of another way to make her father _understand_. “And then we just up and go? I can’t leave Nico here!”  
“Nico has the rest of your friends.”  
“Wonderful!” Piper’s laugh was ugly and sarcastic. Tristan flinched. “They can mourn Bianca and write eulogies together while I have to deal with Aphrodite and pretend I’m not sad! Pretend Bianca meant _nothing to me_!”

“I’m not asking you to forget her, Piper, I’m asking you to understand that Aphrodite is impatient, and that it’s important we arrive as close and on time as possible!”  
“ _THE GIRL I GREW UP WITH IS GOING TO DIE!”_ Piper screamed. The house fell so quiet, Piper could almost assume a bomb had gone off three minutes previously. She swallowed thickly, squeezing her eyes shut. “And you’re worried about my mother, who I did _not_ grow up with, being let down. Tell me, Dad, what’s more important—my mental health or Aphrodite?”  
Tristan didn’t say a word. Piper’s eyes burned, in sync with the fire raging in her chest.  
“Before _she_ reappeared,” Piper breathed, words trembling. “You never would have reacted like this. She’s turned you cold. Forbidding. I feel like I can’t tell you anything, anymore.”  
Hurt flashed in Tristan’s gaze.  
“Piper, you can tell me—”

“No! That’s the problem! I can’t! Because I’m terrified of how you’re going to deal with whatever I have to say!” Piper sniffled, ferociously brushing her hair out of her mouth. “I mean, a year ago, maybe even six months ago, I would never have hesitated to tell you that I’m bisexual! But now I’ve realised it, and it’s too late, because you’re too hooked up on a mother I _never_ got to know, a mother that abandoned us the second I was born because she ‘wasn’t ready for a family’. That’s not what you do when you’re not ready for a family! You—”  
“Piper.” Tristan’s words were soft. Gentle. There were tears in his eyes. Piper hated it. “You’re bisexual?”  
“Yeah, but what’s it to you?” Piper spat. “You don’t care about me anymore. I’d be shocked I you loved me, at this point.”  
“Honey, of _course_ I love you!” Tristan looked like he was trying to walk on glass—every move he made caused him agonising pain. “And you know I’d accept you no matter _who_ you loved.”  
“Seems like I don’t know _anything_ about you anymore,” Piper replied, stomach churning. Her father started to say something else, but she ignored him, sliding off her chair and storming upstairs to her bedroom.

She slammed the door behind her and stood stock-still for a while, paralysed. Her phone made high-pitched sounds like a bell, lighting up on her bed.  
Piper stumbled over and picked it up, falling to her knees as she scrolled through her unread messages.  
**mrbluesky:** hy mctrash, r u ok? Neeks jus calld 2 tell me th news. **  
mrbluesky:** Piper, we r worried. **  
amazinggrace:** what’s going on, Piper? Nico won’t say anything when we call him. **  
bobthebuilder:** dude, where _are_ you? **  
kelphead:** holy shit **  
macareyna** : I hope your dad took the news well xxoo **  
wisegal:** Piper, I heard about Bianca. Do you want to talk? You can meet me at Hestia’s Home in ten. **  
** The most recent message, the one from Annabeth, had been sent thirty seconds ago. Piper wiped away her tears. She shot off short, fast replies to Will, Jason, Leo, Percy and Reyna, then took a deep breath, and fired out a text to Annabeth.  
**mctrash:** please. I’ll ride there. wait for me, k?

Piper had no problems sneaking out of the house. She left a note behind to tell her father where she was ( _as if he’d even care,_ she thought irritably), and pedalled so fast she could have sworn she’d left tire marks on the roads.  
The sky was still overcast and gloomy, but the storm had finished. Rain only fell in a droplet or two every second, and Piper didn’t feel it at all. Her arm still felt weird from where Drew had written on it in permanent marker.  
_I should probably get back to her soon,_ she pondered, pulling onto the sidewalk in front of Hestia’s Home. She parked her bicycle and locked it up, spinning the digit code and tugging to make sure it was okay to leave.  
The café was lit as warmly as always, but when Piper stepped in, the atmosphere was no better than it had been at home. Of course. Bianca had worked here—at least, Piper assumed she _had_ worked there and didn’t anymore, since she had made it clear she was going to spend the rest of her weeks alive checking through her bucket list—and obviously, she would have told the staff the news.

“Hello, Piper,” Silena greeted miserably. She balanced a stack of plates and cutlery in her hands, and her dark brown hair was beginning to fall out of her headscarf. Piper could see a glaze over her eyes, like she had finally given up on being happy, and was just sailing through life—except there was a hurricane above her, and the seas were so big she could drown at any given moment.  
“Hi, Silena,” Piper responded, straightening her jacket. She tucked her bicycle helmet beneath her arm. “Wednesday nights usually this quiet?”  
Silena sighed, adjusting her stack of plates. “Yeah. Wednesday is an… unusual day. The only people that come in here, usually, are college kids looking for a quiet place to work on essays and such. And you and Annabeth, I guess.”  
“Yup.” Piper’s eyes scanned the room, landing on Annabeth. “I guess you heard about Bianca.”  
“Yeah. Hazel handed in her resignation form for her this morning. I’m going to miss her a lot.”  
“So am I.”  
With that happy note, they parted ways—Piper to Annabeth, and Silena to the kitchen.

“Are you okay?” Annabeth rushed as soon as Piper took a seat across from her, in the cute little booth at the back of the store. Piper played with the menus.  
“No,” she said truthfully. “It’s super hard. And I just had a fight with my dad because he was insensitive about it, and I accidentally blurted to him that I was bisexual, and he…” Piper froze. Annabeth frowned, hand halfway across the table, as if she’d been reaching out for Piper’s. She drew it back slowly.  
“What’s wrong?” She asked sympathetically. Piper leant forward, hands on her mouth.  
“Oh my god,” she whispered, barely audible. “ _I just came out to my father on accident_.”  
Something inside of Piper snapped. On their own accord, her hands flew from her lips to the table, palms facing down. Her brain felt like it was on seven different drugs, and her heart was on fire.  
“Piper, it’s okay, we’ll—”  
“No!” Piper looked up, staring Annabeth dead in the eye. “No, it’s not okay!”  
She drew in a deep breath, and exploded.

“My life has gone to _shit_! My father has turned cold and formidable, and it’s—it’s—it’s just like he’s this whole other person! I don’t tell him anything, because he doesn’t care, and I _know_ I can just tell Leo, or Jason, or _any_ of you guys, but I feel like if I do, I’ll be a burden on everybody’s shoulders! And, you know, it kind of doesn’t help that you kissed me at Will’s party, and I know you’re sorry, and I swear I forgive you, but—but for the time period you weren’t talking to me, even if it was only for, what, four days, I felt _awful_! And you know what’s _worse_? I’m moving to Oklahoma and I’m _lying_ to most of the people I know as to why I’m even going! It’s not for my father’s job!”  
Piper paused to take another, shuddering breath, and forged onwards, noticing the tears in Annabeth’s eyes.  
“Of fucking _course_ it’s not for my dad’s stupid fucking _job_ , we would never move for it! Aphrodite, the woman who _dares_ to be my mother, has finally decided to fucking _show up_ , after seventeen years of abandoning us! And since she’s all too high and mighty to move over here, where I have friends, where I have a fucking _life_ , she’s convinced my dad to move to _her!_ And you know what? He agreed to, because at the moment, nothing in the _world_ matters more to him than Aphrodite. Not me. Not the life we built without _her_. Not— _nothing_!”

Piper found she couldn’t speak anymore. She wasn’t sure when she’d started to cry, but tears rolled down her cheeks freely. Her face felt hot and filthy, like somebody had slapped her across the cheek and splashed her with kerosene. Across from her, Annabeth was sitting so still she could have been mistaken for a doll, spare for her trembling lip and the liquid seeping from her eyes, streaming down her face. Piper’s heart dropped to her knees.  
_I made Annabeth cry_.  
“Annabeth, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Piper muttered, wrapping her arms around herself. Before she had a chance to look back up at her friend, she felt somebody’s body slam into her, arms flinging around her shoulders and tightening, leg resting up next to her own to steady the person.  
“Piper…” Annabeth whispered, her hair mixing with Piper’s, her nose buried in Piper’s jacket collar. “I can’t believe you’ve been holing up all these feelings…” she laughed gravelly, mirthlessly. “I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s felt like.”  
Piper couldn’t talk. She choked out some strange noise, and melted into Annabeth’s hug, bringing her arms up to hold her.

“You can speak to us about this, you know?” Annabeth sobbed. “Don’t feel like you have to deal with it alone. We are _always_ going to be here to support you, to—to _help_ you. We _love_ you. You are so, _so_ important to us! This—this _situation_ with Bianca… well, it’s gotta be making things worse. But I promise that we can get through that as well. From here on out, I am going to do everything in my power to convince your father that moving to Oklahoma is the worst possible thing to do right now, and that Aphrodite isn’t worth it. Okay?”  
Piper sobbed.  
“ _Okay_.”  
Annabeth pulled back, and gently guided Piper’s head to her own, pressing their foreheads together.  
“You are _not. Alone_. And so help me, Piper Mclean, I will do _whatever_ it takes to make sure you _never_ forget that.”

Piper could have stayed in Annabeth’s embrace for a thousand years, and she wouldn’t have complained _once_. The weight of a million pounds of cement had been lifted from her chest, and she was breathing for what felt like the first time in a millennium. It had felt _good_ to say all of that aloud. It had felt fucking _incredible_. And the feeling of Annabeth’s hands at either side of her head, foreheads resting against each other, eyes closed and the breath of another on her lips… she would have sold her soul for this. Now, she didn’t need to.  
“Now.” Annabeth inched back a few centimetres. “You know what we’re going to do?”  
Piper smiled, drying her eyes.  
“What?”  
“We’re going to order hot cocoa and a plate of cookies, pretend none of your problems exist, and enjoy ourselves for one night before we dive back into stopping your father from making the worst decision of his life.”

Piper nodded, not missing a beat when Annabeth lingered for a moment longer, before she stepped back and sat down in her own seat again.  
“But _before_ that,” she added. “I’m going to send a group text telling everybody the real reason my dad wants to move.”  
Annabeth grinned. This time, when Piper caught herself staring at her dimples and the freckles spattered across her nose, she didn’t stop herself.  
Silena came over to take their orders while Piper wrote and re-wrote a text dozens of times, trying to put into words the easiest way to admit she’d been lying for months now. Once the task was over, she slipped the phone into her pocket, swearing to Annabeth not to pull it out for the rest of the night.  
“But I might have to text Drew!” Piper faked a whine, scoffing a soft, still-warm cookie. Annabeth snorted, spilling a little of her cocoa over the rim of her mug.

“What reason could you possibly have to text _Drew Tanaka_?” She asked. Piper licked a crumb off her lip.  
“She’s moving to Oklahoma, too, and I thought it was weird,” she mumbled through a mouthful of gooey chocolate-chips. “Oh! Hold on, I have to ask Silena something. Silena!”  
“Hey,” Silena plodded over. She’d tucked her hair back into her pale pink hijab, and had ditched her apron. “I just finished, and I was about to go home. What’s up?”  
“You’re moving out of state, right?” Piper asked quietly. Silena frowned, kneeling down.  
“Yeah. How do you know that?”  
“Leo said something about it. Where are you going?”  
“Oklahoma. Why?”  
Piper could barely process the information. She shook her head.  
“Ah… I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow. Do you have anything on after last period?”  
“Not really. I have a shift behind the counter here, though. Drop by after school and we’ll talk, yeah?”

Piper nodded, and she and Annabeth bid their goodbyes as Silena exited the café, making her way home.  
“What was that about?” Annabeth asked, finishing a cookie. Piper waved a hand in dismissal.  
“Don’t worry about it.”  
Annabeth raised her eyebrows. Piper rolled her eyes, biting back a smile.  
“Yeah, I know. It’s not a problem at the moment, alright? It’s all good.” She drained her cocoa. “I promise I’ll tell you if it escalates.”  
“Good enough for me,” Annabeth replied. From the kitchen, Hestia exited, untying her apron.  
“We’re closing up in a minute or two, girls, so if you want a box for those cookies and a couple of takeaway cups for the chocolates, grab them now.”  
Scrambling to retrieve a box and a cardboard cup for Annabeth, the two girls giggled slightly. Piper pushed away any worry she had had, determined to enjoy at least one night before she faced her problems once more.

“How did you get here?” Piper asked. Annabeth smirked, tossing her curls over her shoulder and earning a jump in Piper’s heart.  
“I caught the bus,” she said. “As far as my father and stepmother know, I’m upstairs working on the English assignment.”  
“It’s eight o’clock,” Piper said, checking her watch. She looked up with a troublesome smile. “We have time to kill. What are we going to do?”  
The glint in Annabeth’s eyes made Piper’s stomach do an assorted range of acrobatic tricks.

 

* * *

  **-Annabeth-**

Sitting on the handlebars of Piper’s bike and screaming with laughter was not something Annabeth had done before, nor was it something she had ever seen herself doing. But here she was—wobbling dangerously and speaking through breathless laughter, asking Piper to slow down without meaning it. She shrieked in enjoyment, gripping Piper’s hands atop the handles.  
“Oh my god, Piper, I’m going to die!” She squealed. Piper turned down a street Annabeth knew well, slowing to a stop. “Wait, what are we doing?”  
“Well, you said you wanted to have fun, right?” Piper asked, kicking out her bike stand. Annabeth slid off the handlebars and fixed her shorts.  
“Well, yeah,” she scoffed. Piper began to walk, and Annabeth stumbled to keep up with her. “But why are we in your street? I didn’t think you wanted to go home.”  
“I don’t,” Piper admitted, face flushing pink. “At least, I don’t really want to face my dad right now. But we can sneak in through the back window.”

Annabeth’s heart pumped ferociously in her ribcage. It had been a fair few years since she’d been at Piper’s house on her own, and half of her wanted to steal the bike, ride away before she could blurt out ‘yes I would love to do that also I think I’m in love with you’.  
But most of her _didn’t_ want to do that, which was pretty lucky.  
“Sounds rebellious.” Annabeth replied, thanking her lucky stars she was smooth. “I didn’t take you for the rebellious type, Mclean.”  
Piper’s cheeks went redder than ever, and Annabeth resisted the urge to run her finger over them.  
“I’m full of surprises,” she squeaked. Annabeth chuckled, and followed Piper as she hurled her bike over the fence and rested it against the house. Together, they silently made their way to the space below Piper’s window, and stared up at it with frowns.  
“So. How are we getting up there?” Annabeth asked. Piper shrugged.  
“Do our best,” she whispered back, and with the agility of a praying mantis, she started to scale the brick wall, hands finding every spot they could; pipes, window sills, chips in the bricks, everything that she could get a handle on.

“I can’t do that!” Annabeth stage-whispered urgently, watching Piper swing a leg through the window. Her friend titled her head and smiled, sending a wave of jitters through Annabeth’s nervous system.  
“I know. Stay there.” Piper disappeared for a second, before returning with a rope. “Take this. Climb up. If you’re so cool, Chase, you can do this.”  
_Yeah, Chase._  
Annabeth sighed wistfully, gripping the rope. “Why do you even have this?”  
“Because I went through this nautical phase and wanted to hang ropes up on my ceiling. Dad told me I’d get out of it eventually and I was too stubborn to say he was right, so I keep the ropes in my wardrobe as proof.”  
Annabeth chuckled. What a Piper-ish thing to do.

She heaved herself through the window, listening as Piper shut it behind her.  
“Urgh, I feel like I’ve been dumped into a pool of sweat,” Annabeth moaned. “All that core-strength required to keep myself on that bike really made me hot.”  
“Go for a shower, then! There’s one right there.” Piper pointed to the door off the side of her room. Annabeth grinned her thanks, and stood up. Piper tossed her a long shirt and loose shorts. “Here. Take these.”  
“Thank you, Piper,” Annabeth trilled cheesily, and ducked into the bathroom.  
Annabeth had never been one to take long showers—she didn’t see the point. Get in, do what you need to, get out, get on with your day. It made _sense._ She was finished in no time. But when Piper took her turn to shower, Annabeth could have sworn she was in there longer than Reyna could spend lecturing Leo; which was, to say, a very long time.  
“You always go for the longest fucking showers, Piper,” Annabeth said when Piper slipped out of the bathroom, rubbing her hair between a towel. Piper poked out her tongue, and in retaliation, Annabeth pelted her with a cushion. Piper snickered.

“I do all my thinking in the shower,” Piper said, flopping backwards to lie on her bed next to Annabeth. She looked up, shimmering eyes holding a million stars. Gods, what Annabeth would give to be able to stare into those eyes forever.  
“Maybe you should save some thinking for school.” Annabeth fell back, arranging a nest of pillows around her. “That’s what it’s for, you know.”  
“Oh, psh. Who cares? I can’t focus in class.”  
Annabeth smiled. She had missed this feeling—contentment with Piper so close to her, almost nestled into her side. Ever since that dumb party Will had hosted, there had been a weird sort of tension between her and Piper, and if Annabeth was being honest, she was glad she now knew why. It made sense that her drunk self had tried to make out with Piper—or succeeded, according to Percy. She’d had that warm and fuzzy feeling around Piper even through her relationship with Percy, which, yes, made her feel incredibly guilty, but it wasn’t like she could help it.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said to me on Sunday night, you know,” Piper suddenly burst breathlessly. “Like… if I wanted to try kissing you again, or whatever.”  
“And?” Annabeth’s palms had started to sweat an unnatural amount. She rubbed them on her legs. Piper shifted a little closer.  
“Well, I mean, I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to murder Percy for a bit. I’ll say that much. But… I also think that… yeah. I would like to try it again. Desperately.”  
Annabeth turned her head to meet Piper’s eyes. Her heart hammered against her chest. She wasn’t dumb. She knew Piper liked her—that was obvious. But it hadn’t ever really occurred to her that she might actually like kissing her.  
_Piper actually wants to kiss me. Again._

Annabeth may not have remembered any of her and Piper’s first kiss, but she could guarantee she would never forget this one. It had happened so fast she couldn’t tell when the space between them had closed. Piper’s lips felt smooth and warm, like melted chocolate running through a fountain, and left the taste of fresh chocolate-chip cookies, cinnamon and a taste that was so uniquely _Piper_ , Annabeth didn’t have the right words to describe it—something along the lines of home and candlelight.  
And maybe things weren’t going right in their lives, for just for a moment, worlds collided—and with the collision, peace came.

Even if it was just for an instant.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love my gals. I realised the other day I haven't done a Q of the chapter for a while, so here's one for you: do you have a significant place that feels like a second home?


	11. Aphrodite and Her Three Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth is a smooth gay, Piper is Not, Drew is the most oblivious person in New York and Silena is Team Mum

**-Piper-**

“You are the _worst_ , Piper Mclean. I mean it.”

Piper laughed through her coughing fit, wiping her watery eyes. Annabeth whacked her in the side with a pillow, hair frizzy and wild.  
“No you _don’t_ ,” Piper rasped, immediately regretting it and cringing at the sharp pain in her throat. Annabeth sighed, dropping the pillow and kneeling next to Piper.  
“Okay, no speaking,” Annabeth said, shaking her head in ridicule. She pulled at the blanket Piper had wrapped around herself. “This is unbelievable. I cannot believe you.  
“It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time,” Piper whispered, maintaining her grin. “The cold doesn’t really bother me, usually. And the rain is cool!”  
“So you figured you would sit in it?”  
“Yeah. I don’t get why I didn’t just get sick during the day yesterday, since I was out in the morning.”

Annabeth pursed her lips, stood up again, and wandered over to Piper’s dresser, where the only photo left standing in the house leant against the wall.  
“It doesn’t work like that,” she corrected. “First, the cold lowers your immunity. _Then_ the bacteria can make its way into your system. I don’t know where it came _from_ , though.”  
Piper didn’t either. She sneezed, blinking wearily and watching Annabeth run her finger along the photo frame. Her heart did some strange rollover, and Piper couldn’t tell if it was from nostalgia, tranquillity or loss.  
“This is from when Hazel graduated middle school,” Annabeth pointed out softly, a warm smile itching on her face. Piper felt herself sink into the reminiscence.  
“Yeah,” she replied heavily, her stuffy nose affecting her speech. She got to her feet and slumped over to where Annabeth seemed to be reliving the memory. “I love it. We all look so happy. That was one of the best days of my life. I didn’t have to worry about moving, or my mother, or Bianca’s cancer, or… never mind. There’s too many things to list.”

“You and Leo bought her a goldfish as a graduation present,” Annabeth recalled, giggling tenderly. “And she named it Ferris, after…”  
“Ferris Bueller,” Piper finished, chorusing with Annabeth. “Because she liked the movie so much That fish is still alive, you know.”  
“I would hope so. Hazel takes good care of animals, and it was only last year.”  
“Not going to lie, I thought Mrs O’Leary might have eaten it.”  
“Piper!” Annabeth’s scolding had no bite to it, just humour. Piper’s smirk widened with pride, but it didn’t last long—her coughing returned, and her eyes began to water once more. Annabeth patted her on the back.  
“I’m not going to school today,” Piper murmured. “There’s no way.”  
“Honestly, I wouldn’t let you if you tried.”

Piper closed her eyes, smiling and shaking her head. _Ever the boss_ , she thought to herself.  
After Annabeth had kissed her (again! And sober this time!), she had had trouble falling asleep. _Of course_ she had! Her brain had been running high on excitement and hope, blocking out any thoughts of her problems and focusing solely on the girl who had fallen asleep next to her, breathing deeply and curling into Piper. She hadn’t thought about facing her father when she got up the next day, she hadn’t thought about Bianca’s death sentence, and she certainly hadn’t anticipated getting a bad head cold. She’d simply nestled her head into the crook of Annabeth’s neck and lied awake, smiling despite her situation.  
And then she’d woken up with a throat full of gravel, a heavy head and a tight chest, and woken Annabeth up by hacking up her lungs—which, as far as Piper could tell, was not exactly the best way to wake up somebody who’d kissed you.  
Piper fretted she might have transferred her flu to Annabeth, but Annabeth was adamant that she was fine. In her own words, she ‘had an immensely wonderful immune system, and hadn’t been sick enough to miss school since the infamous stomach bug in third grade’.

“You should go, though,” Piper added as an afterthought, though silently, she thought about how much she would miss Annabeth if she left. “Go to school.”  
Annabeth seemed to consider this. Her smoky eyes flickered, as if she was actually _hesitating_ on going to school.  
Which was ridiculous. Annabeth Chase wouldn’t miss school if she had been doused in kerosene and set alight. Piper would know—she’d suggested just skipping a day of school once and Annabeth didn’t talk to her for a week.  
“Yeah, I suppose I should.” Annabeth folded her arms, glancing back at the photo. “Should probably get home before my father decides to check my room, actually. Thank you for not kicking me out last night. It was kind of you.”  
“Well I wasn’t about to make you go home when you were _asleep_ , was I?” Piper snorted, and regretted it as soon as she had, coughing on the action. Annabeth shrugged.  
“Still. Thank you.”

Piper retreated back to her pile of pillows and cushions, observing Annabeth ready herself on the window sill with the rope in hand.  
“I’ll see you tomorrow, maybe?” Annabeth asked (was that _hope_ Piper detected in her voice? No, it couldn’t be) as she leaned back. Piper raised her hands in a passive, mock-innocence shrug.  
“Possibly.”  
Annabeth chuckled and waved one last time, before lowering herself to the ground slowly and cautiously. Piper’s smile widened, and she laughed breathlessly, standing up and dancing around, despite the blanket around her shoulders and the nausea in her stomach. Annabeth Chase had kissed her— _again_! And this time, she hadn’t been drunk and passionately angry about her breakup with Percy. She was kissing Piper on her own accord, her own feelings. Annabeth Chase had kissed her, and it felt _delightful_.  
It was such a wondrous thing, how different Annabeth’s drunk kisses felt to her sober ones. The taste of vodka and lime had (ever-thankfully) been replaced with peppermint milk, which, now that Piper was thinking about it, was rather extraordinary, considering neither of them had had peppermint that evening. This time, there was no aggressive teeth-clashing or accidental biting—just soft kisses with no blistering heat, a wave of smooth exchanges that Piper wanted to cling onto until she died.

There was no anger in this kiss. There was no pent-up frustration because Percy was staring at Jason, and there was no freezing up out of surprise and awkwardness, and there was no tension that arrived when Will threw open the door, stumbling a little, and blue eyes going wide at the sight.  
Piper hadn’t thought she’d ever be able to get the chance to kiss Annabeth again, not at that point. She had savoured the moment and promised herself it was good; or at least, better than nothing. She had stayed the night at Will’s with no ride home, crashing on his bedroom floor and falling asleep to the sound of his heavy snoring, and her own thoughts, a repetition of the same thing— _savour it, savour it, savour it_.  
But she didn’t have to savour it now, because Annabeth had kissed her _properly_ , _gently, nicely_ , and holy _shit_ —it was _unbelievable_.  
Dizzy, and sort of regretting dancing around, Piper sat down right there on the ground, still giddy.

Until, of course, her father knocked on the door, and memories of what was going on _outside_ of Annabeth’s peppermint milk kisses hit her with the force of a god.  
“Come in,” Piper croaked, her smile falling. The door cracked open, and Tristan Mclean stepped into the room, eyes searching in confusion and coming to rest on his daughter.  
There was an old gleam of concern in his eyes that Piper had seen flicker away when Aphrodite had made her unwanted return, and worry lines creasing into his forehead. Piper made no effort to greet him.  
“Pipes, I’ve…” Tristan faltered, then sighed, and made his way to where Piper was cross-legged on the floor. “I haven’t stopped thinking about what you said last night.”  
“Which part?” Piper asked, more coldly than she intended. Tristan bit his lip.  
“All of it, I suppose.”  
There was a long pause, in which Piper’s elated mood ebbed away completely, leaving her in a dull emptiness and a gaping hole in her heart. Finally, Tristan took a long breath.

“I never wanted things to get like this. I never wanted to break your trust so badly that you cannot even bring yourself to tell me you’re bisexual. I never wanted to have to move right after Bianca… after she passes away. All I ever wanted was for your mother to return to me, to come back. When she told me that she wasn’t going to move to New York, but that she had plenty of room in her place in Oklahoma, I jumped right on the plan without thinking of you, and the life you’ve built here. And in retrospect, never have I made a worse decision in my life. I _do_ care about you, Piper. I care more about you than anything, or any _one_ , in the world. After your Grandpa Tom died, you were all I had left—this hyperactive, cheeky four-year-old that once convinced Will Solace to push you around in a little shopping trolley.”  
Piper tried not to, but it was hard to refrain from smiling at the memory. Will had been adamant not to do it, but she had been just as stubborn, and in the end, she broke her wrist trying to soften a fall.

“I was a devil child,” Piper mumbled, and Tristan nodded, the ghost of a smile on his lips.  
“Yeah, you were. But I loved you so much, and I still _do_. Seeing you in such a bad place is… it’s extremely difficult. I’m aware that half of it is because I’m forcing you to move against your will, and I’m sorry. But you _must_ understand that this is something I need to do—I couldn’t live the rest of my life knowing that the mother of my beloved daughter is alive and well, and gave me the chance to continue our life together, and I refused. For me. For her. And for _you_. I want you to meet your mother and see why I love her.”  
Piper looked down, hoping her father couldn’t see the tears that had begun to pool in her eyes. She coughed.  
“I don’t get what you see in her,” Piper acknowledged, blinking hard. She focused pointedly on her hands.  
“You will, Pipes. I promise. Just… let’s try this, okay? And I thought, maybe, we’ll stay here a little longer. Give you time to go to Bianca’s funeral and mourn her for a bit. Alright?”

Piper looked up again, feeling her smile worm its way back onto her face.  
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I promise I’ll try.”  
Tristan beamed. Then, as if he was noticing Piper’s coughing and watery eyes for the first time, he seemed to do a double-take.  
“Are you sick?”  
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.”

* * *

Piper had always liked staying home when she was sick.  
By now, Tristan had left to figure something out with the removalists, and Piper was left alone. She’d made herself popcorn and was slouched on the sofa, watching reruns of _How I Met Your Mother_ while she scrolled through Twitter. It felt nice to have a day where she didn’t particularly have to do anything. Jason had promised to get her photocopies of the day’s work, _Leo_ had promised to drop by his infamous ‘cure’ for the flu (Piper didn’t trust that cure one bit, especially with the amount of tabasco sauce she’d seen him pour in the time Frank was sick), and Annabeth was unhelpfully sending her frequent pictures of their chemistry homework.  
Piper turned off her phone and tucked it under her blanket, picking up the photo Annabeth had been looking at earlier. She didn’t really know why she’d brought it into the living room with her—perhaps she just wanted to revisit a day where things were truly going well for her.

Hazel stood in the middle, beaming at the camera with her schoolbag strapped across her back as Nico, Bianca, Leo, Piper and Frank squished her in a hug. Percy and Annabeth stood to one side, their hands intertwined (“ew, gross,” Percy had said when he’d seen it again a month or two ago. “can you imagine?”) and their faces watching Hazel with pride. On the other side of the huddle, Reyna, Will and Jason stood with shining eyes. Will was mid-laugh, which Hazel had automatically assumed meant he was laughing with glee.  
Neither Piper nor Will had had the heart to tell her he was laughing because Piper was flipping off that asshole, Octavian what’s-his-name, behind Hazel’s back.  
Piper’s lips tugged upwards. If she breathed in deeply, she could inhale the faint smell of honeysuckle that had floated in the air that day, feel the slight breeze on her cheeks, tousling her hair, even taste the tangy fizz of bubbly lemonade on her tongue.  
She missed when things had been so calm and tranquil.

Piper jumped and felt the photo slip from her hands as her phone went off, playing _I’m Yours_ to signify a caller. She scrambled to catch it before it shattered on the wooden floor.  
Scowling as she set the frame on the coffee table, Piper picked up the phone, not recognising the number but hitting answer anyway.  
“Hello, Piper Mclean speaking,” she drawled, running her fingers over the glass of the photo frame and checking for any hairline cracks.  
“I know it’s you, Piper, I’m not _that_ stupid.” Drew Tanaka’s voice rang through the speaker. Piper frowned.  
“How did you get my number?”  
“I told Jason Grace we had urgent matters to discuss and he gave it to me,” Drew said, and Piper could practically imagine her inspecting her nails. “Well. I also told him I knew about his crush on that short kid, Leo Valdez, and he got so flustered he gave it to me anyway. Which was _absolutely_ not my plan. I was simply trying to help him.  
Piper had no response to this, so she sighed.

“Alright. Why are you calling me?”  
“I spoke to Silena Beauregard this morning about what we were talking about yesterday afternoon, because she just happened to be rounding the corner as I was, and she seemed intrigued. She did mention that you were going to drop by this afternoon, as well, and quite frankly, I’m a little upset you didn’t invite me.”  
“I’ve been busy, Drew,” Piper grumbled. Drew snickered.  
“Making out with that Annabeth, I presume?” Piper made an undignified noise, but Drew laughed her off. “Don’t worry, nobody said anything. I’m just very observant about these types of things. In any case, Silena’s ditching her shift this afternoon and we’re going to come talk to you, figure all this out. Jason said you were sick, so… don’t infect me. I’m too preoccupied to become diseased.”  
“You are, with all honesty, the most dramatic person I know. And I’m friends with Will Solace.  
Another snicker.  
“I should hope so. Anyway, I have to go now. Sir is staring at me and waiting for me to get off this call. I’ll tell him you said hi!”

The line clicked—Drew had hung up. Piper forced herself not to chuckle at that girl’s antics—she was as predictable as she was dramatic.  
As she turned back to the TV, Piper began to think more about the whole moving situation. It seemed odd for Silena to skip a work shift; she loved her job. Anybody could tell you that. Whatever was going on, Silena wanted to figure it out just as badly as Piper did.  
Another two hours passed before Piper heard the doorbell trill out. She groaned quietly, then stood up, slumping to the door with her blanket wrapped around her body.  
“Hey Piper,” Silena said when Piper swung open the door. “Sorry to drop in uninvited. Drew said it should be fine—”  
“You look awful,” Drew interrupted, screwing up her nose. Piper scowled.  
“Thanks, Drew,” she said, sniffing. “I’m sure you would look a hundred times better if you were sick.”  
“You say that like I wouldn’t be.”

Silena and Drew followed as Piper lead them to the kitchen, noting their expressions of familiarity when they saw how empty the place was.  
“Alright.” Drew began to untie the laces of her calf-high black boots, smiling gratefully when Piper slid a cup of juice across to her. “So, we’re all moving to Oklahoma. Now what do we do?”  
“We figure out the connections, obviously,” Piper replied, and hoisted herself up to sit cross-legged on her benchtop. She spooned a forkful of ramen into her mouth, and chewed slowly, waiting for Drew to finish with her boots.  
“It matters _why_ we’re moving, right?” Silena asked as she blew over the top of her coffee. “Like, that would help.”  
“Oh yeah!” Drew finally managed to kick off her boots. She began to part her hair into two sections, picking apart strand strays. “That makes sense. Well, Piper said she’s moving for her dad’s work.”  
“That was a lie, Drew,” Piper explained slowly, like she was talking to a toddler. If Drew caught the insult, she didn’t react.

Piper tapped her fingers on the surface of the kitchen counter. “I said that because it’s what I told most people. I wasn’t really ready to accept the real reason we’re moving, so I guess I made that story up to cope.”  
Silena sighed, setting down her coffee and plonking her chin into her cupped hand.  
“I tried to tell Charlie I was moving for different reasons, but he’s smart.” She backtracked for a second. “Charlie Beckendorf. My boyfriend.”  
“We know who Charlie is, Silena,” Drew muttered over the rim of her cup, barely comprehensible. Then, louder: “So why are you guys really moving?”  
“ _I’m_ moving because my mother, who abandoned me when I was born, contacted my dad again, and she wants us to move down with her. I—Silena, you good?”  
Piper hadn’t been prepared for the sound of Silena choking on her coffee to interrupt her sentence, nor was she ready for Drew to tug on a strand of hair she was braiding and say “Wild! Me too!”.

“Wait—” Silena tried to speak through her coughs, her eyes watering. Drew thumped her fist against her back, grimacing. “So—so you –er, and Drew –are both moving because your mother, who abandoned you after she gave birth to you, decided to show up again? Out of the blue? Okay—Jesus, Drew, you can stop now!  
Piper nodded, her heart pounding. This was _not_ happening. No way. _No way_.  
“That—that’s why I’m going, too.” Silena swatted Drew’s hand away. She coughed one last time. “Same reason. This can’t be a coincidence.”  
Piper closed her eyes, praying to any god that might even exist that this _was not happening_. She peeked out through one eye, looking down at Drew, who had returned to braiding her hair.  
“Drew, your mom, the one who’s come back—what’s her name?”  
Drew raised an eyebrow, like she couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Aphrodite,” she droned, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “What’s it matter?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhn and then there was another plot point


	12. Beginning to be Resolved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trans Drew Tanaka? in MY fics? it's more likely than you think!

**-Piper-**

“So.” Piper felt like she was trying to swallow gravel. She began to crack her knuckles, one by one, a nervous habit Jason had passed on to her that drove Reyna insane. “So. We have the same mother. We’re… we have _the same mother_. We’re sisters?”  
“Half,” Drew corrected, seemingly unfazed. Silena had stood up, and was now pacing the kitchen in circles, tucking her middle finger into the gap between her index and thumb and untucking it again and again. Drew swallowed her last gulp of juice and pushed forwards. “Also, said mother is trying to keep it a secret until we all get there, I presume. And then she’s going to be like ‘surprise, I had sex with all of you, here are the products, live with me forever!”

“Maybe you should stop talking for a bit,” Silena muttered feverishly, bumping into the fridge without seeming to notice. Piper winced. “Just how are you so calm about this, Drew?”  
“I don’t know, I kinda had a feeling anyway,” Drew answered. She set down her empty glass, and Piper felt a mixture of relief and utmost terror when she saw the slightly scared glint that passed over the younger girl’s face. “Like… I don’t know.”  
“This is _nuts_!” Silena cried, stopping in her footsteps. Her hijab had loosened, and she tugged at it, tightening it around her head. “What do we do? Is this illegal?”

“It’s not illegal,” Piper assured her. Silena didn’t very convinced, but she took it anyway.  
“’What do we do?’ Oh, Silena, tell me you’re better than that.” Drew jumped off her barstool and finished her braids, snapping her hair-tie in place. “We _tell_ somebody, obviously. Look, it’s clear none of us want to move. We have lives here we don’t want to abandon. I’m certainly not ready to repeat a year of school. We tell our fathers, and it’s game over for Aphrodite.”  
“What do you mean?” Silena frowned. Drew sighed.  
“You really think any of them will still be willing to go to Oklahoma to pick up a relationship with our mom if they knew she was pretending there were _three of them_? I, for one, _know_ that my father is about as progressive as a snail on sand and it was like pulling teeth trying to convince him that I was _not_ making it up when I told him I was a girl, and—”

Drew seemed to notice the bewildered expressions set hard upon her newfound sisters’ faces, and the way her hands were clenched on the benchtop. She took a deep breath.  
“ _Anyway_ ,” she breathed. “Even if Aphrodite was trying for a polyamorous relationship, he would root his ass in New York and block her number.”  
“This isn’t polyamory,” Piper said brashly. “This is lying.”  
“I know that, I was just—never mind, it doesn’t matter anyway. My point is, how would you feel if the ‘love of your life’ turned out to be trying to court two other people at the same time?”  
Piper chewed the inside of her cheek. Drew, as per a very Drew-ish procedure, had made a valid point in the most casual tone somebody could be in after learning that they had two half-sisters. If Piper told her father about what was going on, she’d stay in New York.  
But the heartbreak Tristan would feel when Piper told him the truth... it almost wasn’t worth it.

“One problem,” Silena suddenly burst. Drew looked up from her hands. Piper’s eyes flitted over to her. “Uh, how will they believe us?”  
“We bring them together,” Piper said, a solution finally dawning on her. She straightened up, flicking her hair back over her shoulders. “At, like… Hestia’s Home, or something.”  
“That would work!” Silena stopped pacing, and turned to biting her nails instead, her eyes wild. Drew slapped her hand away from her face. “As far as my dad knows, I’m at my shift right now. I can ring him and ask him to go over, and I’ll head over. I can drive you two.”  
“I’ll tell my father I’ll buy him a coffee,” Drew muttered, whipping out her phone. Piper arched her brows.  
“That’s the only way he’ll join you?”  
“It’s the only way you can get him to do _anything_.”  
Piper sneezed, remembering once again that she was sick. She groaned.

“I can go, but we’ve gotta make this quick. I feel like a zombie,” she complained. Silena nodded, raising her phone to her ear and walking towards the front door. Drew’s lips twitched, like she was refraining from smirking—which, Piper corrected herself, she probably was.  
“You look like one, too,” Drew added, looking down at the small ‘ _ding_!’ her phone made. She smiled satisfactorily. “He’s on his way. We should probably get going.”  
Piper shot a quick text to her own father, coughing into her sleeve.

 **Pipes:** can you meet me at Hestia’s Home in five minutes? It’s urgent. There’s something you need to know.  
**Dad:** is everything okay?  
**Pipes:** I’ll explain when you get here. You’ll want to hear it in person.

Piper felt a little guilty, spoiling the happiness her father had been working up, but Aphrodite was clearly nuts. You couldn’t plan a heart-warming reunion with three of your exes, including your three daughters through them, without telling said exes there were _three of them_. Tristan was a modest, respectable person—he wouldn’t ever want to continue a relationship with somebody who, essentially, was cheating on you with two others. And, Piper reminded herself, because he _was_ respectable and modest, he wouldn’t be mad at Drew and Silena’s own fathers. He’d be mad at Aphrodite, and possibly himself, and that was it—not at Piper, or her sisters, of their dads.

Everything would be fine.

Piper’s stomach twisted a little when she climbed into the backseat of Silena’s car. She knew Silena well, but she wouldn’t say she knew her well enough that getting into her car and driving off to tell their fathers they were sisters (holy _shit_ ) was something she did regularly.  
Drew had taken shotgun, which didn’t surprise Piper at all; Drew got her way easily, and most of the time she didn’t even _need_ the blackmail Piper knew she had stashed in the back of her brain, and probably a notebook, too. In fact, she, Annabeth, Percy and Jason had witnessed firsthand how good she was at convincing and negotiating when she’d persuaded the four of them to help her sabotage Octavian’s (what _was_ his last name?) date with her cousin. That had been a wonderfully weird thing to do.

“Piper, can you pull my uniform out of my schoolbag?” Silena said, breaking Piper’s train of thought. She nodded, cold dread making its unwelcomed return in her stomach, and tugged the café’s uniform from Silena’s backpack, before chucking it into Silena’s lap.  
“So how are we doing this?” Drew asked, putting away her nail file. Piper seriously needed to ask her where she stashed all her stuff. “Sitting them all down like little kids?”  
“Probably the best way to go around it,” Piper sighed. “Get them all to the same table. Shot not telling them what’s happening.”  
“I’ll tell them,” Silena assured Piper. “Don’t worry about it.”  
Piper was not worried about Silena breaking the news; she had that same, soothing atmosphere as Will held.

When Silena finally pulled up to the homey café, Piper felt like she was going to throw up, or faint, or burst into tears—possibly all three. She slid out of the car and followed Drew inside, not paying attention to Silena’s dash to the bathroom to get changed. It surprised her when she scanned the room, and found Will with Kayla, Austin, Michael Yew and Lee Fletcher.  
“I’ll be back,” she whispered to Drew, and hurried over to their table.  
“Piper?” Twelve-year-old Kayla looked up from her sandwich. She grinned. “What are you doing here?”  
“Big news for my dad, and other stuff. Doesn’t matter.” She turned to Michael and Lee, noticing just how different they looked to when they’d started college. Michael’s scrawny frame had gotten at least an inch or two taller, and Lee looked like he had finally discovered the secret to life.

“Long time, no see,” she said. “What brings you guys home?”  
“Austin’s a snitch!” Will grumbled, sinking into his chair, his cheeks bright red. “He doesn’t know when to be quiet.”  
Austin giggled, watching Kayla kick her legs and blow bubbles into her chocolate milkshake. Michael stretched his arms over his head.  
“We heard from Austin that Will had a crush on Nico a week or two ago, and we only just got enough time to come home,” he explained, then grimaced. “We only found out about Bianca yesterday, when we arrived. So now we’re here for moral support.”  
“Also this café,” Lee added. “Jesus, I’ve missed this place. Including their Ambrosia.”  
Piper smiled despite herself and what she was truly here for. It was always good to see Michael and Lee again—they were brothers to her, as one would expect, since they’d spent years babysitting her.

“Piper!” Drew called from a booth backing onto Will, Kayla, Austin, Lee and Michael’s. Piper glanced up at her—her trademark smirk had turned into a worried bite-of-the-lip, and behind her, two men sat in the booth. Silena had her hand on one of their shoulders.  
_Here we go_.  
“I have to go,” Piper rushed, turning to go.  
“Wait! Why are you here with Drew Tanaka?” Will asked, brow creasing. Piper waved him away in an explain-later gesture, and hurried over to Drew.  
“Hello,” she said quietly, nodding her head at who she could only assume were Drew and Silena’s fathers. The one with Silena’s hand on his shoulder, who shared his daughter’s soft features and round jaw, smiled kindly at Piper, who immediately felt warmth run through her veins.

The same could not be said for Mr Tanaka.

The coldness in his brown eyes rivalled the temperature of that of a snowstorm—swirling and without any mercy, sparing nobody he looked at. The tightness of his lips forced them into a thin line, the pressure upon them so great they turned pale. Unlike Drew, his expression of snark was not full of irony and care; it was simply just snide, like he waited impatiently for somebody to slip up their speech, so he could pick them apart. Even the way he held himself, straight and unmoving, as if somebody had stuck a pole through his spine and sewed it to his bones, intimidated Piper and made her shiver to the core.

Mr Tanaka’s gaze never wobbled. It swept from Piper to his daughter, who almost shrunk into her seat, but managed to remain bold.  
“Father,” she said through gritted teeth. “Piper said hello.”  
“Good afternoon, Piper” Mr Tanaka’s voice sounded like the scraping of a shovel on ice. Piper, not as brave to cold behaviour as her sister, backed as far into the booth seat as she could manage. Drew met her eyes and squeezed her arm.  
Piper had never been more grateful in her life to see her own dad walk into the café, triggering the soft bell above the door. She waved at him, trying to catch his attention and succeeded in bringing him to the booth.  
“Dad, this is Drew Tanaka, her dad, Silena Beauregard, and _her_ father,” Piper said, moving over to make room for Tristan, who shook hands with the two men across the table. Beside her, Piper heard Drew whisper something under her breath. She couldn’t make it out.

Blood roared in her ears as Mr Beauregard asked gently what was going on, and Silena, after a moment of hesitation, broke into the confession. Piper’s intestines writhed, shaking her entire body and forcing her to politely refuse the piece of bubble-gum Drew offered her—she didn’t even take the time to consider where the hell she’d pulled it from.  
She didn’t register that Silena had finished up until Drew nudged her.  
“So… yeah,” she squeaked, blinking to clear her sight. All three men looked shocked, including Mr Tanaka, who also looked like he’d been force-fed a basketball. “Surprise?”  
“I mean, there’s always a DNA test,” Drew drawled, but Piper could hear the fear in her voice as she glanced at her dad. She made a mental note to double check that Drew was fine living at home.

“No need, I think,” Tristan muttered. There were tears in his eyes—Piper felt guilt stab her in the chest. All her father had ever wanted was to reunite with Aphrodite and raise their daughter in the best way possible, and now said daughter had realised that everything about Aphrodite was a scam. “There’s no way this can be a coincidence. How many people in Oklahoma are named Aphrodite and want to have a happy reunion after abandoning their daughters?”  
Piper refused to look up from Drew’s hands, where she was counting her rings to keep herself from crying. She focused on wringing her hands and the several silver bands glittering on her sister’s fingers, dotted with garnets and pearls and rose quartzes.  
She didn’t stop focusing on them until her father gently pulled her to her feet and walked her outside.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Piper sobbed when they had exited, accepting the hug her father offered with greedy haste. “I know this meant everything to you. I couldn’t stand the idea of going but… but _you_ wanted to go! So badly! I didn’t want this to be the way… I don’t…”  
“It’s okay, Pipes,” Tristan muttered, stroking her hair. “I know you wanted the best. Besides… there were things you didn’t know about, either, and would have hurt you. Your mother seemed so charming that I agreed to it, but in hindsight, a worse decision has never been made.”  
“What are you talking about?” Piper stiffened and pulled away. A gleam of guilt shone in her father’s eyes. He sighed.  
“Your mother wanted you to attend a school for modelling once we arrived in Oklahoma. She planned for you to join an agency. It was her dream—to have a daughter in the modelling business. She wasn’t going to listen to what you had to say about it, and I couldn’t tell you, because I knew how you would react. I’m so sorry, Piper.”

Piper was speechless. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, then decided this really wasn’t the craziest thing she’d heard today.  
“I don’t really care about that, honestly.” Piper’s voice was course, and her hand instinctively flew up to rub it, try and soothe it. She tried for an exhausted smile, which her father matched. “Let’s go home. We can watch a dramatic movie or something. I don’t want to think about Mom.”  
“As soon as I call the removalists to cancel,” Tristan said through a tired laugh, “and the storage company to get our things back, we’ll put on that 2000s movie you like and forget about this mess. I’ll confront Aphrodite tomorrow.”  
With that comfort, which Piper took with a spoonful of sugar, they began to hail for a taxi for a ride home.

* * *

 

**-Bianca-**

“Piper just called me to say she’s not moving to Oklahoma anymore.”

Bianca dropped the cooking mallet she’d been using to tenderise lamb. She looked up.  
“She’s _what_?” She asked. Will Solace shrugged, moving forwards to regain his seat next to Nico.  
“Dunno. I saw her leave the café not too long before I did, but I guess something happened. She said she’ll explain more tomorrow.”  
Nico looked like somebody had handed him a baby dragon—slight concern was evident in the warm, chocolate brown eyes he and Bianca shared, matched with adoration.  
“She’s staying?” He whispered. Will grinned, his freckles dancing.  
“She’s staying.”  
Bianca thanked Persephone quietly for picking up her mallet and set it gently on the benchtop. She could hear Hazel’s running footsteps upstairs and listened as they traced their way to the kitchen.  
“Piper’s staying!” She cheered, and skidded across the tiled floors, enveloping Bianca in a crushing hug, who wheezed and shoved her back gently.

“Watch the bruises,” she heaved. Hazel gasped.  
“I’m sorry, Bianca! I’m so stupid!” Bianca chuckled, and ruffled her sister’s hair. “But I’m excited! Piper’s staying!”  
“Speaking of staying,” Persephone turned from the pot she’d been stirring rice in, and glanced at Will. Bianca didn’t miss the sparkle of admiration in her eyes—Will was Persephone’s favourite of Nico’s friends. “Will, are you going to stick around for dinner?”  
“Only if it’s not a bother, Persephone,” Will said politely, swinging his legs slowly beneath his chair. Bianca bit down her grin.  
“It’s never a bother to have you, dear, you’re so kind,” Persephone turned back to the rice. “Nico, why don’t you and Hazel go set the table? I’ll get Hades, and Will can help Bianca finish off the vegetables.”

“What?” Nico pouted, but stood up and began to collect cutlery. “Seph, Will’s not even a kid in this family and you’re giving him chores. Give him a break.”  
“It’s cool!” Will jogged over to Bianca, grabbed a knife and started dicing the onion Bianca rolled to him. “I want to help anyway!”  
Nico rolled his eyes, and maybe Will was too busy starting to tell Bianca a story about his older brother, Michael, to see his wide smile and pink cheeks, but Bianca never missed a thing.  
Her heart clenched, pumping harder, trying to circulate blood that had never been quite right. She listened with half attention as Will recounted the way Michael had broken his leg jumping off the roof trying to fly when they were little, watching light dance in his sapphire blue eyes, watching Nico laugh inconspicuously when he thought Bianca wasn’t looking.

“Will.” Bianca had to interrupt. She laid her hand across Will’s freckled arm, and caught his attention, watching the blood drain from his face.  
“Are you okay?” He asked. Bianca nodded, feeling her heart clench again.  
“Do you see how happy Nico is?” She said quietly, gesturing to where Nico was mucking around with Hazel in the joint dining room. Will frowned, nodding.  
“Yeah?”  
“He hasn’t been like that since I got back from the hospital and told him I wasn’t taking the chemo again. When you visited… his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I think just being around you makes him feel that little bit better.”  
Will pursed his lips, looking down, his neck and ears ruby red. Bianca sighed.  
“I guess what I’m saying is… well, it’s a big thing to ask, but… once I’m gone, I need you to look after him. I asked Piper, as well, but you make him so happy. He’s going to be in a worse place than ever after I die, and he’s going to need somebody like that to help him get through his mourning process. I’m not asking you to be joined at his hip at all times, just… take care of my little brother. Please?” Bianca felt her voice break on the last word. Will’s eyes shone with tears he clearly didn’t want to spill.

“Yeah,” he whispered. Bianca could feel his arm shaking beneath her hand. “I promise.”  
Bianca smiled sadly, gratefully, and returned to the vegetables.

Dinner was something out of Bianca’s dreams. Her brother had never looked so peaceful, sitting next to the boy with freckles and glittering blue eyes, and that was the only state she’d ever hoped to see Nico in. She observed the two with envy and a heavy heart, wishing she could have more time to watch this boy, so tiny and fragile, only just beginning to heal, grow.  
She wished she had more time.  
_She wished she had more time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh no I hope I don't really kill Bianca...... oh nooo........  
> (I am sorry, I do love her)  
> Q of the chapter - who makes you the happiest?


	13. History Exams & And One Final Realisation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> me? in love with Drew Tanaka and Will Solace's possible friendship? oh yeah.

**-Piper-**

Having two half-sisters was a strange feeling, especially when you hadn’t known about these sisters until very recently.  
Silena dropped in sometimes after school, or her shifts at work, bringing in slices of the weekly special pies and slices and discussing her college applications. Piper had learned that, although her first choice was Oxford University, she was pretty sure she’d get her second choice—Harvard.   
Drew visited Piper and her father often, and usually ended up just staying the night. Piper didn’t mind in the slightest—she’d always wanted siblings, and having somebody as fashionable as Drew Tanaka basically living with you was always helpful. In fact, Piper enjoyed it so much, she’d all but forgotten that Drew didn’t actually reside in her household.

“Your house looks a lot nicer when it has your things in it.”  
Piper nodded and made a sound of agreement, not bothering to take her attention away from her study cards. Drew drained her glass of cranberry juice and sighed.  
“Dad’s still making me repeat this year,” she grumbled, tapping a rose-red, perfectly manicured nail on her glass. Piper nodded gently, subconsciously, to the sound it made, relishing the peacefulness of a golden sunset illuminating the sky and the balcony she and Drew sat at.  
“You know you’ve told me that before, right?” Piper said, scribbling a note down next to her short paragraph about Troy. “Like, twenty times in the past week.”

Drew snorted.  
“I’m just mad about it,” she explained, unwrapping a piece of her favourite bubble-gum and popping into her mouth with a sly grin. “Ah well. Maybe I can finally get a date. Bubble-gum?”  
“If it’s cherry flavoured, I’m not interested,” Piper muttered, already knowing the answer. Drew shrugged.  
“Suit yourself. Anyway, how are your friends going? The ones that clearly like each other but won’t make a move on each other?”  
Piper rolled her eyes, flipping a page in her history textbook with a flick of her hand. “Which _ones_? At this point, it could probably be any of us.”  
“Well, I _was_ talking about the really short one with curly hair and the blond boy with blue eyes, and I forgot their names, but— _do_ tell.”

“I’m busy, Drew,” Piper sighed, finally glancing up from her papers. Drew lounged in a hammock, blowing cherry-scented bubbles with her gum and watching the sunset through her rose-tinted sunglasses. Piper was starting to get the sense that she _really_ liked the colour red.  
“Piper, when have you ever cared about school, much less history?” Drew peered over her glasses at Piper, popping her bubble. She ran her finger over the rim of her glass. “Tell me all the gossip.”  
“I’ve _cared_ since I decided I actually want to get into a good college when I finish school,” Piper replied. “Which, to be fair, was like—three days ago. Look, this is my first exam, okay? Just give me five minutes and then I’ll tell you everything while we order Chinese.”  
Drew grumbled something about ‘Annabeth rubbing off on her’ and pulled out her phone.

Piper finished her study notes with a swish of her pen and a relieved groan, slamming her textbook closed and standing up to stretch. Drew clapped.  
“Great! Now tell me everything while I decide what I want to eat. Is your dad going to be home?”  
“Nah, he’s out with Jason’s dad, discussing job opportunities.” Piper finished her (now unpleasantly warm) smoothie and licked the excess off the top, ignoring Drew’s look of disgust.  
“So invite Jason over, then. Wait, is he the blond one with blue eyes I was talking about?”  
“Yes, he is, and no I will not. He’s busy, too—helping Reyna and Percy with something. Besides, I can’t tell you the gossip if he’s here.”  
“Disregarded, then. Do you want deep fried beef?”

While Drew ordered dinner, Piper packed away her stationary slowly and watched her phone buzz silently with incoming group chat messages, mostly from Leo and Nico, who seemed to be arguing about the proper way to make spaghetti. Piper usually loved Leo’s cooking, but looking at the ingredients he was listing off (in all caps, probably just to make Nico angrier), she wasn’t too sure about it all this time. The inhumane amount of tabasco sauce he’d insisted on made her nauseas to even think about.  
Three weeks had passed since Piper, Drew and Silena had figured out their mother’s plan—three weeks since Annabeth had kissed Piper again, three weeks since Bianca had admitted she wasn’t going back on chemo. Piper got vertigo thinking about how much had changed in those short, three weeks.

Not only had Drew and Silena become members of her family, but the whole move to Oklahoma had been cancelled, Leo’s dad had come and gone (with only minor problems, thank God), Lee and Michael had returned to college, the yearbook had _finally_ started to look like a yearbook—and all the while, Bianca was steadily getting weaker and weaker.  
Piper knew she wasn’t the only one who had noticed the way Bianca couldn’t stay standing for longer than a few minutes, or how deep the bags under her eyes were, or how she seemed to be constantly trembling, like the effort of simply staying alive was beginning to be too much for her. It was clear Nico and Hazel could see it, too—even if Hazel was desperately insisting Bianca would pull through for two months, Piper couldn’t see her staying for two more _weeks_.

It had taken a long time to truly accept that Bianca was going to be gone very soon. Piper didn’t want to think about it at all- she hated the idea that sometime within the next two months, Bianca’s skin would be pale grey and her heartbeat drumming its final, slow thumps. She’d spent as many days as she could with Bianca, trying to cling onto the sound of her voice, the way her eyes lit up when she laughed, how warm her hugs were—the physical feeling of drinking warm honeycomb milk on a cold day. Whenever she thought about the promise she’d made to Bianca about looking after Nico, her chest began to ache, and her fingers curled instinctively; Nico had been lost enough when Bianca had first been diagnosed, and there wasn’t a _chance_ he’d be any happier this time around. Cheering him up was going to prove to be the most difficult task Piper had faced yet.

 _Of course_ , she wasn’t alone in helping him. Every single one of her friends was prepared to support he and Hazel through everything.  
But Piper still felt sick to her stomach thinking about it.

“Dinner’s been ordered,” Drew announced, setting her phone down on Piper’s dresser as they stepped back inside. “Can I _please_ hear the gossip now?”  
“There’s really not much to hear, you know,” Piper said, falling backwards on her bed. If she focused hard enough, she could remember how warm Annabeth had been, curled into her side with her arms wrapped loosely around her waist. “We’re all pretty concerned about Bianca. Not much to do while that’s happening.”  
“Oh, come on. Something’s always happening. And you said so yourself, everybody’s confused.”  
“It’s Junior year, Drew, _obviously_ everybody is going to be confused.

The look on Drew’s face was murderous. Piper threw her arm over her eyes to avoid it burning into her skull.  
She sighed.  
“Okay, _fine_.” She sat up, grabbing her pillow and hugging it to her chest, leaning her shin into it. “Well, you know about Leo and Jason. Plus, there’s Will and Nico, and me and Annabeth, and I’m ninety-nine per cent sure Percy has a crush on Jason, but at least it’s not bothering him. I don’t think.”  
Drew scoffed.  
“You call that gossip? I know more about _Silena and Charlie_ than _that_.” She narrowed her eyes. “To be fair, though, Silena doesn’t shut up about him. But still!”  
Piper couldn’t help but laugh, watching Drew’s face turn sour, like somebody was forcing her to suck on a lemon.

* * *

 

“Excited for the history test?”

Piper groaned, covering her face with her hands while Thalia laughed mockingly next to her.  
“I cannot believe our final exams are already here,” she muttered. “History’s just the _beginning_.”  
“It’ll end quickly enough,” Thalia reassured her, turning down the familiar street Piper had known all her life. “Also, I cannot believe you’re making me pick up Will Solace.”  
“Will’s a good guy!” Jason said defensively from the back of the car, elbowing Leo away with a blush on his face. Leo looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, pausing in his efforts to take his study notes.  
“Why _are_ we picking up Will?” He asked. “I thought he caught the bus with Percy and Annabeth.”  
“His dumb ass overslept again, so I told him we’d give him a lift!” Piper rolled down her window and watched Thalia slow down outside the large, warm-coloured home. From the other side of Leo, Drew muttered something under her breath.

“Well, _I’m_ not moving for him,” she said, louder than before. Leo swivelled in his seat to stare her down through his mess of brown curls that Piper knew he’d forgotten to comb again.  
“Are you _sure_?” He asked. Drew scowled, but remained firm in her seat. If anything, in fact, she sat up straighter and glared so fiercely down at Leo, he gulped and leant back into Jason, who stiffened and bit his lip to stop himself from grinning absurdly.  
“I can’t believe my brother is a disaster gay,” Thalia whispered, quiet enough so only Piper could hear her. She looked up from her phone, sending her text to alert Will they were outside.  
“You can’t? Thalia, he tried to eat a stapler when he was two. He’s a disaster whether he’s gay or not.”  
Thalia burst into spiky laughter.

Piper watched Will burst out of the front door, still buttoning up his plaid shirt, his shoe straps undone and his curly blond hair a mess. Drew cringed visibly and shook her head.  
“One day I’m going to give that boy the biggest makeover in the world. And I’m going to burn all of his stupid pairs of sandals.”  
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without sandals _on_.” Jason peered over Leo’s head. “So, you might have some trouble with that.”  
“I can’t see anything wrong with it,” Leo murmured. Drew, horrified, seemed to decide she’d rather take her seat in the boot of Thalia’s car than sit next to the elfish, toddler-looking boy known as Leo any longer. She tossed her backpack behind her and crawled after it, shooting glares at Leo as she did so.

“Hey everybody,” Will all but yelled when he slid into the car, shutting the door and belting himself in. “Piper, Leo, Jason, Thalia. Oh, thanks for the ride, Thalia!”  
“Don’t mention it,” Thalia grumbled, and took the U-turn back onto the road that lead to Olympus High. Drew cleared her throat.  
“Hello, Drew Tanaka’s here too!” She announced, leaning forward. Will twisted to look at her, grinning.  
“Hi Drew! Sorry, I forgot you thrived off attention.” Piper chuckled, hearing Drew gasp sarcastically.  
“Oh no! Sorry, Solace, but I don’t really take half-hearted insults from boys who can’t match plaid with their shorts and wear _sandals_.”  
Will pouted, and turned back to the front. Piper swore she heard him mutter something along the lines of ‘they’re not _that_ bad’.

“What’s it like being related to the meanest person in the world, Piper?” He asked, lifting his leg to do up the straps of his sandals. “I seriously cannot stop thinking about this whole ‘Aphrodite’ situation you texted us about. I know it’s been three weeks, but… damn. Your life sort of sounds like something from a soap opera.”  
“It’s fine. She has good fashion advice,” Piper joked. She groaned heavily as the high school came into sight. “God, I hope somebody dies during the test. Then we get guaranteed a one-hundred-per cent grade.”  
“I’ll take one for the team,” Jason offered. Leo patted him on the shoulder, undoing his seatbelt early to the horror of Will.  
“We commemorate your service, Sir Jason Grace. I promise to lay roses at your grave.”  
Piper shared a knowing glance with Will through the rear-view mirror, biting her lip to stop herself from smirking. Will didn’t bother to be subtle.  
“The hell are you grinning at, Solace?”

“God, okay, get out of my car!” Thalia pulled into the school’s parking lot, flicking off the child lock. Piper comforted herself in the knowledge that something like this, something so small and such an old joke, was still something Thalia did. It was like an anchor—her life was still hers, despite everything that was changing.  
“Yes, ma’am,” Drew said in a nasally, mock-posh voice, and jumped out of the trunk. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head, blew Piper a kiss goodbye, and strode over to where Malcolm Pace, Nyssa Barrera and Conner Stoll seemed to be arguing.  
“Dude, it’s _so_ weird that she’s your sister,” Leo said. Piper watched Thalia drive off, nodding slowly.  
“You know how middle kids are meant to be the bitchiest?” She said. Will nodded wildly.  
“I should know,” he said. “I _am_ the middle child. Along with Bella.”  
“Well, in this case, it’s the youngest.” Piper tightened her bag strap. Jason and Leo set off for their friends, shoving each other playfully as they walked.

It was nice, seeing her two best friends so comfortable around each other, despite the obvious crush Jason had on Leo. Piper was pretty sure even _Leo_ knew about it.  
“Do you think they’ll _ever_ go out?” Will asked. Piper shrugged, and they started to follow the two boys.  
“I mean, maybe. But it’s sort of like asking if Annabeth and I will every go out, right?” Piper yawned. “I want to ask her, but I feel like she might reject me again.”  
“You said she kissed you—sober this time!” Will fiddled with a button on his plaid sleeve, rolling it up. “Come on, Piper. She’s not going to reject you again.”  
“She might!”  
“She’s not!” Will snapped. Then he groaned. “I’m sorry. I got, like, two hours of sleep last night. I was studying while Austin was, for some reason, practising his saxophone in the ungodly hours of the morning. Plus, Nico and I were talking and I’m too nice to tell him to shut up.”  
“You’re not ‘too nice’, you’re just head-over-heels for him.” Piper laughed at Will’s stuttering and his glowing red ears. “Okay, look. I’ll ask Annabeth out if you do the same with Nico”

“Not right now!” Will exclaimed, shaking his hands and proceeding to hit Piper in the face in the process. “Not with this Bianca thing. He has too much on his plate. I’ll give it time, yeah? You, though… you have no reason to wait.”  
Piper, too mad that Will had proved a point, didn’t reply, and turned to grinding her teeth instead.  
The atmosphere of their group of friends was light, happy, perhaps stressed for their upcoming exam, but something felt off. Piper said her hellos and took a seat, wedged between Annabeth and Reyna, but scanned the area. It felt as if somebody had turned a knob controlling their lives ever so slightly—not a large enough turn to trigger any huge events, but maybe just to alter something.  
Then Piper, with a jolt, realised what was wrong.

“Where are Nico and Hazel?” She asked, interrupting Frank midway through his joke she knew only Percy was going to laugh at anyway. The blood drained from Reyna’s face, and she bit her lip.  
“Well…” She took a swig from her drink bottle and twisted the cap back on. “Nico called me this morning. They don’t think Bianca has much time left—maybe a couple of days. Their family is staying home with her until she…”  
It appeared that she wasn’t able to finish. Reyna’s lower lip wobbled, and she blinked heavily and looked down. Piper had never seen Reyna cry, but she could understand if she burst into tears now—everything seemed a hundred times realer now that Bianca was mere days away from losing her life.  
Piper had been speaking to Bianca on a regular basis, visiting the di Angelo/Levesque household often to see her. Bianca had said multiple times that she had accepted that this was where her life took its finish line and crossed it, but it remained difficult for Piper to do the same.

Bianca had been nothing but a good person her whole life, no matter how short. If Piper looked at it one way, it was totally unfair that she wouldn’t get to grow up, to go to college, to travel Europe and visit her birthplace once more like she’d always dreamed of doing. It was so completely saddening to see her weakened and weary at only eighteen—fate was toying with Bianca’s life like an old rubber duck that had been forgotten in the bath tub for decades, and Piper couldn’t _stand_ it.  
On the other hand, if Piper looked at it the way Bianca preferred to, Bianca was being rewarded—she had been given the choice to end a life of misery and pain, and maybe she would be given another, cancer-free life. Though it was tough, Piper was just going to have to suck it up and view it in that idea, like Bianca wanted her to.

She would take care of Nico, and she would do it with determination, even though her heart would ache for the sister she’d never been blood-related to. However heavy she would feel, however lost, however long it took her to mourn her friend, she’d do what she’d promised. Now, being there for Nico was her main goal—a promise was a promise, no matter how difficult it was to keep.   
Despite the pain Piper could already feel gnawing at her stomach, she smiled sadly.  
“Guess we’ll go visit her this afternoon, then,” she whispered to the thick, depressing silence. “One last time, right?”  
Annabeth’s hand found its place inside of Piper’s, squeezing it as a comfort.

Piper had never wanted to watch Bianca fade away. But she had no choice.  
And so she would watch through the perspective Bianca had offered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally hate myself for doing this I'm sorry


	14. Reassurance of Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is another filler can you tell? also I guess a possible TW for depression. it's really short and it starts not long into Nico's POV.

**-Annabeth-**

Annabeth was not quite used to watching people suffer.

Sitting in the car, wedged between Piper and Percy, had been torturous; what with the dim clouds of gloom and loss hanging low over their heads. Reyna’s knuckles were white, clenched around the steering wheel, her elbows locked—which, Annabeth knew for a fact was not safe. Percy’s hands roamed his clothes and hair, nit-picking at creases and lint-balls and out-of-place strands that wouldn’t lie flat. Annabeth could understand where he was coming from—ADHD usually meant he liked to keep his hands busy anyway, but with an extra topic to avoid, they never stopped moving. Will wasn’t helping the situation, talking in a quick, nervous pace from the passenger seat as he jabbed on about random things they saw on the road and listed off facts about some old murder case from the 1940s.

Annabeth wasn’t calm herself. Her brain hyper-focused on some of the evidence and suspects Will gabbled about, creating possible reasons for death and motivations, then tracked off on trains of reasons why, in this weather, she really should have worn shorts instead of her ripped jeans and what she was going to say to Bianca. Her fingers tapped a rhythm her father hummed around the house on her knees, picking up their pace, slowing down and stumbling across the parts she didn’t know in an unorganised pattern. She had twisted her curly hair up into a ponytail _hours_ ago, but even still, it felt too hot on her neck; sweating because she was frying in the heat, and sweating because she was _terrified_.

She supposed it was a combination of the tapping, Will’s jittery voice, Percy’s fidgeting and Reyna’s jerky driving that made Piper snap, finally moving and yelling after ten minutes of still silence from her.

“Stop it!” She shrieked, sitting up straight and slamming her hands onto her legs. “Just _stop_!”  
Will’s voice stuttered to a stop. Percy’s hands froze, fingers lingering above his scruffy hair, while Reyna’s eyes flew to look in the rear-view mirror.  
And Annabeth could do nothing but sit and feel her heart crumble as Piper burst into tears, collapsing into Annabeth’s side and sobbing in a short, heavy tempo. Her wailing filled the car with heartache and grief, the sound of pure agony ringing in Annabeth’s ears. She wriggled her arms out from beneath Piper and tugged her in, cradling her close. Piper’s body racked with every gut-wrenching cry she heaved—it was all Annabeth could do to keep her upright and in a road-safe position.

Percy’s voice hadn’t been a sweet saviour for a long time to Annabeth, but now, she couldn’t be more grateful for it.  
“Stop the car,” he ordered solemnly, his voice gravelly and deep. Reyna frowned.  
“But we have to get there—”  
“Just pull over. I know what I’m going, Reyna.”  
With a ‘humph’ of melancholy and irritation, Reyna pulled off the road and into an empty parking lot that Annabeth could only guess belonged to a recently abandoned office building  
Percy unbuckled his seatbelt and swung open his door, crossing around the back of the car to end up on Piper’s side. He opened her door softly this time.  
“Move over, Annabeth,” he said—but there was no bite to his order this time. Just a soft, sad request.

Annabeth shuffled to her left, wiggling Piper with her so that the weeping girl ended up in the middle seat. Percy slid in and shut the door gently.  
“Hey, Piper, look at me,” he coaxed. Piper swallowed loudly and sat up again, wiping her eyes. Annabeth kept her arm around her waist for good measure.  
“What?” Piper croaked. Percy grabbed her hand and spread out her fingers, holding it up at arm’s length before her.  
“Look at your hand, yeah?”  
Annabeth raised an eyebrow over Piper’s head. Percy ignored her, nodding when Piper stared at her fingers in confusion.  
“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Is your hand still attached to your arm?” Percy asked. Piper blinked once, twice, three times. Then, slowly:  
“Yes?”  
“Yeah. Is it going to disappear when Bianca dies?”  
“Percy, maybe be a little less blunt about it,” Reyna hissed. Percy rolled his eyes and ignored her, too.  
“I’m saying it as it is. Piper?”  
“No, it’ll still be there,” Piper mumbled, blinking again; Annabeth guessed that this time, she was holding back her tears. Percy smiled sadly.  
“Of course it will. It’s not connected to her death. And neither is your other hand, or your legs, or your head—and especially not your memory of her. Bianca’s still going to be here in spirit, okay? Just because we’re gonna lose her body and her physical presence doesn’t mean we’re going to lose all of her. Just like your hand, everything we’ve ever known about Bianca is going to stay with us until we either make a conscious effort to or, by some freak accident that might include amnesia, lose her.”

The silence in the car spoke volumes of realisation and understanding. Annabeth had no idea where Percy had conjured that from, but she was thankful. Piper had stopped sniffling. She simply watched her fingers flex and curl with determined despair in her gaze, as if she was trying to see both the negative and positive effects of Bianca’s death at the same time. Reyna sighed.  
“I never thought I’d say this, but… Percy’s right,” she admitted, somewhat begrudgingly. Annabeth gnawed on her lower lip. “Bianca’s death is going to affect us in a lot of ways, but it’s not like she’s going to be gone forever. You don’t forget something just because it’s gone, and that applies to people, too.”

“I’ve known her since I was a little kid,” Piper lamented, bringing her hand to her lap. Annabeth took it gently and squeezed it in reassurance, pushing down the butterflies in her gut. “Almost as long as I’ve known Jason and Leo.” Piper paused for a second. “And Will.”  
“I get it,” Will said quietly, surprising everybody. Annabeth had never taken Will for the kind of person that was really good at getting inside of people’s heads—in the two or three years that she had been friends with him, he’d always been talkative and loud, but not usually empathetic. Sure, he was _sym_ pathetic, and he was wonderful at calming people down and making them feel better, but Annabeth had often thought he was too thick-headed to truly _understand_.  
Maybe she’d been wrong.

“My aunt Artemis went missing for a couple of years when I was little,” he mumbled, toying with the cuffs of his rolled-up sleeves. “One day, we were talking to her over the phone, and then the next… a missing person’s report from her friend Zoë. There was a search party, and my dad was a wreck. After about a year, the authorities found a piece of her jacket in the river and she was just presumed dead. And it was probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. She was like a third parent—I’d known her all my life and she’d always been there for me. Then suddenly she was gone.”

Annabeth felt Piper begin to lose the tension she had been  holding in her shoulders, but with every inch she relaxed, Will seemed to become more upset. Annabeth hoped he wouldn’t run himself into tears.  
“I didn’t know that,” Piper whispered. Will shrugged, looking down.  
“I didn’t want to tell anybody because I didn’t think it was important to others. Besides, my dad didn’t want too many people concerned—she was in Michigan when she went missing, and she probably wouldn’t be in New York anyway. Doesn’t matter. After two and a half years, Artemis stumbled into a town looking like a mess. Authorities were contacted, and so were we. She won’t tell us where she went, why, and what happened while she was gone, but she’s better now. We see her all the time. Point is, she was always—still is— a big part of my life, but even after they told us she was being assumed dead, I didn’t just forget her. I could never. Bianca will be the same, just… she won’t come back, is all.”

Annabeth hadn’t noticed, but Reyna had started the car up again and merged back onto the road. Piper brushed away the last of her tears and nodded slowly, like she finally understood what would happen after Bianca died. A defeated, sad wave of tranquillity crashed through the vehicle in a tide of emotions. Annabeth nudged Piper and gestured to her seatbelt.  
“We’re two minutes away!” Piper said, eyebrows flying into her hair. Her cheeks were stained with a trail of dried tears, eyes red and bloodshot, lips chapped from where she’d been biting them. Annabeth scoffed.  
“Who cares? You still need to put it on!”  
Piper scowled but strapped herself in regardless. The scowl couldn’t have reached her eyes.

* * *

 

 

**-Nico-**

“You know I’m always going to be _here_ , right?”

Nico couldn’t stop crying. Bianca’s shaky hand rested on his chest, too weak for her to lift it all on her own. Nico helped her prop it up and stay there, sobbing uglily.  
“I _know_ that!” He cried, clutching Bianca’s elbow. Her skin felt too paper-thin, too close to the bone. “But I want you to be here physically.”  
“Nico,” Bianca’s hand started to move, cupping Nico’s cheek. He gulped, glancing through blurred eyes down at his sister. She smiled with finality, as if she could see death standing behind Nico and awaited it with readiness. “I’m not going to repeat the same stuff as what I’ve been saying for the past month. But I love you, okay? So much. You’re my baby brother. I looked after you when Luke Castellan bullied you for liking Mythomagic. I made pasta necklaces with you when you got bored. I dried your tears when you came out to us and reassured you how much we still accepted you. _I love you_.”

Nico rubbed at his eyes with the sleeve of his loose, long t-shirt. He leaned forward and hugged Bianca tightly to his chest, reluctant to ever let her go. He heard the door open behind him, but ignored it, weeping quietly into Bianca’s shoulder while she combed her fingers through his hair.  
“It’s okay,” Bianca whispered, voice wobbling. Nico felt hot tears begin to seep into his hair—and there was no way they could be his own. “it’s going to be okay.”  
“I don’t want to get bad again, Bee,” he sobbed, so quiet only Bianca would ever hear him. “I know they said the antidepressants might work, but what if they _don’t_?”  
“Your therapist knows best, Neeks. She’s a wonderful person. And I promise you won’t get that bad again. Will and Piper have promised to look after you, and you really think the rest of your friends—and Dad, and Hazel, and Persephone—wouldn’t notice? I _promise_ you’ll be okay.”

Somebody cleared their throat. Nico took a deep breath and moved his head to look at the doorway.

“Not to intrude, but…” Hazel smoothed down her frizzy hair. “She’s my sister, too. Also, Reyna, Frank, Will, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Leo and Jason are five minutes away.”  
“You can have your turn alone with her,” Nico mumbled, standing up and wiping his eyes once more. Bianca squeezed his hand and pulled him down to kiss his forehead.  
“I love you, Nico,” Bianca breathed. Nico swallowed more tears.  
“I love you too, Bee.”  
Nico regretfully pulled away from Bianca and trudged to the doorway, taking Hazel’s place and shutting the door as gently as he could behind him. His sisters’ voices became muffled and indistinguishable through the thick wood. It took every part of his willpower not to sink to his knees and give up everything right then.

But Bianca wouldn’t ever let him give up on himself, or Hazel, or his father, or Persephone. She wasn’t gone yet, but she would be within a week, and it was all Nico could do to at least acknowledge that and keep moving forward.  
He forced his feet to take slow, heavy steps, dragging himself across the railing that circled the top of the staircase and stumbling down the steps. He could hear his father and Persephone discussing funeral plans in dull, hopeless voices in the room across the hall—from the sounds of it, Bianca had organised most of it, but there were necessary bits and pieces left she hadn’t wanted to touch upon, things for Nico’s parents to fill in.

Nico decided he didn’t want any more morbid discussions weighing down on his shoulders. He swallowed another bout of tears and swung open the front door, collapsing into the daybed sprawled across the porch. Maybe if he sat outside for a while, the golden afternoon sun crossing his legs, he’d be able to… well, he didn’t really know what he wanted to do. Calm down? Be eat peace with his sister’s decision? He wasn’t quite sure.  
Maybe he’d just sit and wait for his friends. They always helped when he started to feel emptiness dripping and filling him up, or simply just when he felt unable to forge through on his own.

Reyna’s Mini Cooper pulled up in the curb first, braking smoothly. The passenger door flew open faster than Nico had ever seen in his life, and a six-foot, blond, freckled and grim-looking figure stepped out. Nico’s heart sank, realising he didn’t even have the energy to feel nervous.  
Percy and Reyna weren’t too far behind Will, marching up the driveway with pain and pity in their eyes.  
Nico had never thought he wanted pity, but it was hard to be mad when he knew they all had their best interests at heart.  
“Are you okay?” Will asked when he reached the porch, blue eyes wide. Nico frowned.  
“No ‘hi Nico’?”  
“Hi, Nico.” Will folded his arms. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better,” Nico replied, shuffling over so that there was room on the daybed for Will and Reyna. He caught Percy’s eye. “You can sit on the ground.”  
“Thank you, Nico,” Percy grumbled, falling cross-legged onto the cement with a grumpy expression.  
“How’s Bianca?”  
Nico didn’t respond. He didn’t want to—he couldn’t. He decided to instead watch as Annabeth and Piper finally made their way out of the car and walked slowly towards him. It didn’t surprise him that Piper’s eyes were bloodshot and puffy; she’d known Bianca for a long time.  
“There they are,” Percy said upon the two girls’ arrival. Annabeth nudged him (read: basically kicked) him with her foot, and she and Piper took a seat next to him.  
“Sorry, I was trying not to have another breakdown,” Piper muttered. Annabeth winced.

Frank, Jason and Leo made it not long after, but Nico barely registered them. Once they’d caught up with him for a few minutes (during which Nico spent most of his time zoning out and trying not to cry), Nico stood up and led them inside. Hazel hadn’t left the room, but her voice was no longer quiet and protected, like she was keeping her time with Bianca private. She talked at an average volume, and the door was cracked open—a subtle sign Nico knew Hazel had made especially so that he would know when to intrude.  
“I’m just warning you… she’s weak. And sick. Noticeably.” Nico took a deep breath, spinning to face his friends. Each of them looked just as exhausted as him, especially Piper.

Nico hadn’t had much time to take in the fact that her life was basically a fucking drama movie, what with his sister’s slow death, but he had thought it over a little. It scared him. His friends had lives larger than what he first thought.  
Nico turned back to Bianca’s bedroom door and tiptoed into the room.  
As always, his stomach churned at how deathly she looked. Her skin was too gaunt and pale, her veins too visible, her lips too blue, her eyes too far closed for the girl who usually kept them wide open.  
“Hey, guys,” Hazel said gently, and beckoned them closer. Nico didn’t really feel all that great about taking away what was definitely going to be his friends’ last goodbyes to Bianca, so he opted to stay quiet, simply holding Bianca’s hand when she reached for him.

Nico didn’t pay much attention to the conversation his friends held with Bianca. Sure, he picked up on bits and pieces (“I don’t think gasoline works like that,” from Bianca to Leo, “I’d be grateful if I was a lizard,” from Frank to nobody in particular, and “Don’t worry, I’ll sneak a sword into your funeral and bury it with you so you’re ready to battle your way through the afterlife,” from Piper to Bianca), but nothing too important. He was too busy savouring the soft smile on his sister’s face, mentally burning it into his brain. He drank in her voice and clasped onto it tightly, afraid that if he didn’t he’d forget what it sounded like. He gazed down at Bianca and tried his best to etch her into his memories forever.

He didn’t want to forget her. He didn’t want her spirit to slip between his fingers like the water of a fresh stream, slippery and so hard to pick back up. He hated – _despised_ —the idea that he was going to lose his sister for good, but if he couldn’t stop her from leaving, he _had to_ at least keep her memory, her laugh, the way she smiled when he told her about his day, the _warmth_ she brought when she assured him that he was okay, he’d be okay, _everything was going to be okay_.  
He couldn’t lose his sister’s spirit. She meant the world to him.  
He hadn’t the faintest clue what he’d do if he somehow did, and he didn’t want to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I think there's only going to be about three more chapters of this....... wow. then I'm going to start a new fic with a new AU, I think.


	15. Here is When The Slope Goes Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is shit and I'm sorry

**-Piper-**

“Bianca’s gone.”

Piper’s heart faltered. Her hand flew to her mouth as she dropped into the couch behind her knees. Tristan, Drew, Silena and Mr Beauregard watched her with a mixture of confusion and concern.  
“When?” She choked, her eyes burning with the huge tsunami of tears about to stream down her face. Hazel sniffled on the other side of the line.  
“Ten minutes ago,” she croaked. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t call you as soon as it happened, we were all too upset—”  
“It’s okay,” Piper whispered. She buried her face in her free hand, sobbing silently. “I… Hazel, I… I’m sorry… I don’t know what to say…”  
“It’s okay. Neither do I, really.”

The phone line echoed with the sounds of grief, of mourning. Piper couldn’t stand it.  
“The funeral’s on Wednesday.” Hazel’s voice wobbled too much.  
“I’ll be there, I promise. Are you guys alright?”  
“Nico hasn’t said anything since it happened, but I think he’s going to call somebody to talk to them. Maybe Will, he’s good at comforting people.”  
“Okay… Hazel, I have to go, okay? Jeez, I still don’t know… I’ll see you soon.”  
Hazel choked out something indistinguishable (probably ‘goodbye’) and hung up. Piper let her phone slip from her fingers and curled into herself, sobbing into her knees. Fast, light footsteps told her Silena was making her way towards her.

“Is it Bianca?” Silena’s soft, kind voice asked. Piper could barely lift her head—she just nodded, and melted into her sister when she wrapped her arms around her.  
“She’s gone,” Piper sobbed shakily, a waterfall of tears running down her face and pooling in her hands. Silena might have said something, but she would never know—her mind had started to buzz so loudly she couldn’t hear anything other than her own thoughts.  
Bianca was _gone_. Her heart had stopped beating and her lungs had failed to take another breath and her blood was now sitting still in her veins and her brain was dull and void of life and _Bianca was dead_.

Piper’s world began to tilt and swing and sway beneath her. She clutched onto _somebody’s_ shirt, and she wasn’t sure if it was Silena or Drew or even her dad, but she didn’t care, she just needed _somebody_ to hold onto. She had known that Bianca was going to die within a few days… hell, she’d been _anticipating_ it. But hearing Hazel confirm that she was gone for good, that it had already happened…  
Piper drew in a deep breath. She _had_ to stay strong, to keep herself from falling away, and to keep Nico from crumbling.  
“It’s okay, Piper,” Drew’s voice was softer than Piper had ever heard it, and sounded close to her ear. “It’s okay.”  
“I know,” Piper whispered. She opened her eyes to see Drew’s hair, and realised the shirt she was clutching belonged to her. Silena stood behind her, an expression of pity washing over her face.

“Funeral’s on Wednesday,” Piper said, clearing her throat and pushing Drew away gently. Her father nodded slowly.  
“We can take Leo if he has no way there,” Tristan said, rubbing his chin. His eyes glistened with tears.  
Sometimes, Piper forgot how clever her father was. She wouldn’t have thought about how Leo would probably have no other option than a bus to get to the funeral, considering how busy his foster father was all the time.  
And it sent a splinter of ache through Piper’s organs to see Tristan looking _damaged_ , because he hadn’t yet healed from the whole Aphrodite-thing, and now… now his daughter’s old friend was dead.  
She hated seeing him hurting.

“I’ll tell him that,” Piper promised. She stood up slowly, the Earth no longer rolling at a million times its usual speed. “I, uh… I’m gonna go up to my room. I’ll come back down for dinner, alright?”  
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tristan asked. Mr Beauregard made a noise of agreement while his daughter started to fuss over Piper.  
“Call for us if you need us,” she demanded while checking Piper’s pulse—for some reason. “We’re down here. Take some water, don’t get dehydrated, you dehydrate easily when you cry. And—”  
“Silena.” Piper grabbed her sister’s hands and pushed them away from her neck. “Thank you. I’ll be okay, though.”  
“I just care about you,” Silena said, drawing her hands back in. Silena smiled sadly, half-heartedly. Drew snorted.  
“God, see? We don’t even need Aphrodite. Silena’s basically our mom.”

Silena scowled, but Piper saw recognition and acceptance beneath it. Drew was right, and she knew it—where Aphrodite wasn’t, Silena was. All the parenting, the driving to and from, the ‘eat your vegetables and drink water’ was supposed to be Aphrodite’s job. A _mother’s_ job. Yet, Aphrodite was absent, and had been for seventeen years, and so Silena stood up and took it.  
Piper was sort of angry that she had to take it on herself, even though she was only seventeen and should have been focusing on her senior year. It wasn’t fair that a teenage girl had to be the one to make sure Piper had a ride home if her father was working, to make sure Drew understood her homework, to make sure the two of them were _okay_.  
But there was nothing Piper could do about it.

“Just shout if you need anything,” Silena finished, and let Piper go.  
“Eat your greens!” Drew advised in a perfect mockery of Silena’s voice. The vague sound of a _whack_ and a ‘hey!’ followed Piper away.  
Piper’s arms felt heavy and her eyes stung as she ambled up the stairs, wondering if she should just go back down there and keep company from her family. She wasn’t sure if she needed to be alone right now, or if she needed somebody to talk to, or a hug, or just some _warmth_. The reality of Bianca’s death seemed to continually wash over her in waves, never staying, never leaving, never stopping.

The doorknob of Piper’s room felt smooth, cold and familiar beneath her hand. She twisted it and entered, eyes scanning the room out of habit—you never knew when your newfound, absolute menace of a half-sister would rummage through your makeup for the eyeshadow palette she was convinced you stole.  
Alas, Drew was still downstairs. Piper’s eyes swept from wall to wall simply because she was used to doing that now. Drew and Silena had become big parts of her life; almost as big as Annabeth, the girl she had a ravaging crush on, Will, her old friend and neighbour, Jason and Leo, her best friend since day one, and Nico, Hazel and Bianca.  
_Bianca_.  
Piper wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

Her eyes landed on the array of photos that she had finally been able to take back out of the box. They surrounded the single photo Piper had kept as long as she could—Hazel’s middle school graduation.  
Piper laughed silently, wiping a tear off her cheek and picking up the framed picture. It seemed like such a long time ago… only a year, not even, had passed, but with everything that had changed since then, it felt like a million decades.  
Piper set the photo back down and gulped back another wave of tears.  
Drew had mentioned once before that Piper kept more memories framed than a museum. Piper had been thinking about that; it was just such a widely accepted thing to have photographs in her house, she hadn’t even realised that other families didn’t do the same thing.

Come to think of it, the only house Piper had ever been to that had anywhere near as many photographs as hers was Frank’s. His father was absent from all of them, but his mother’s face made up for that. She was everywhere in the home—Frank said his grandmother simply missed her daughter too much, what with her fighting somewhere far away.  
Piper had the feeling he missed her even more.  
Piper sometimes felt like there was an empty space in her photos, too, but not often. All the times she visited the Jackson household and saw Sally making mushed carrots for baby Estelle, or dropped by to see Will and found Naomi helping Kayla and Austin with their homework, or even heard Nico tell old stories from Venice about his mother… she’d come back home and see no mother in any of her photos. A mother she knew she had, but had abandoned her in turn for—what, another child? Drew?

And then Piper went back to the Jackson household, where Sally laughed and asked for help entertaining Estelle. Visited Will to give him homework he’d missed out on, and fill Naomi in on her day while she helped her braid Kayla’s hair. Let Silena practise her tattoo designs with black pen while she snapped at Drew to stop skipping songs.  
And she realised her mother wasn’t missing. She had Sally, Naomi and Silena.  
Once upon a time, she’d had Bianca, too. Now, there was a new empty space—one where a girl who had her _whole life ahead of her_ once stood.

Piper’s favourite photo wasn’t Hazel’s graduation. It never had been—it was just the one that radiated the most peace. No, her favourite photo was the portrait-angled one, with Piper grinning and showing off the gap between her teeth while Bianca pulled a face at the camera. It had been taken the day before Bianca had been diagnosed—the day before chaos ensued. Jason had somehow got a hold of his father’s camera and taken as many pictures as he could, then printed them off and stuck them up with blu-tak around his room.  
But the one with Bianca and Piper had been Jason’s gift for Piper’s eleventh birthday. Piper had received it in her card from him and framed it immediately, afraid if she didn’t she’d forget what Bianca looked like in the case of her untimely death.

Piper sighed, and laid the photo back down. Things had _changed_ since then. Jason’s wall didn’t hold and photos anymore—just a poster for his favourite band, _Imagine Dragons_ , and a painting Rachel Elizabeth Dare had once done for him. Piper didn’t have a gap between her two front teeth anymore—she’d gotten her braces and they’d been taken off. Reyna had her driver’s licence, Hazel had a boyfriend, and of course—Bianca wasn’t alive to pull stupid faces anymore.  
The pain of it all filled Piper from the core to her brain, molten lava coursing sluggishly through her entire body.

Piper’s phone buzzed, yanking her from her grief-filled mourning. She brushed her tears away once again and picked it up.  
**macareyna:** Climb out of your stupid window and meet me down here right now.  
Piper glanced at her window, where a pebble the size of her fingernail hit the glass. She rolled her eyes and tucked herself into her blankets, determined to just _sleep._ Maybe Bianca would still be alive when she woke up.  
Her phone buzzed again.  
**macareyna:** Do you think I’m joking. Get out here.  
This time, the stone was the size of a tealight candle. Piper was tempted to throw her entire desk out of the ‘stupid window’ and crush Reyna.

 **macareyna:** I am holding a rock bigger than Percy’s fucking ego. I have the strength of a champion boxer. Last chance.  
_She can_ not _take a hint.  
_ Piper groaned and threw off her blankets furiously and stomped over to her window, rubbing her eyes. Reyna was good at comforting people—Piper knew that from firsthand experiences. The thing was, she had funny ways of getting to the _point_ of comforting somebody. Like throwing rocks at windows.  
Piper flung her window upwards and glared outside with red eyes. Reyna, true to her word, stood below, cradling a rock that looked like it would weight a million pounds. Annabeth sat next to her feet, folding a crinkled piece of paper over and over.

“Well it’s about time!” Reyna called up. Piper scowled.  
“I’m busy being sad. Did Hazel not tell you the news?”  
“Of course she did,” Reyna replied. “That’s why I’m here. Now climb out of your pity hole—I’m taking you somewhere.”  
“I’d rather not.”  
“I’m still holding this rock, Mclean. And you happen to be in my throwing range.”  
Piper jumped out of her window and hurried to the ground.

* * *

Piper couldn’t decide if Reyna was a genius or just _insane_.

After Piper had followed her onto a bus (which was weird enough; Reyna never parted with her car) with Annabeth at her side, they were joined by Will, Percy, Frank, Leo and Jason at one of the bus stops.  
“How’d you all know?” Piper had asked in a whisper once Jason and Leo had collapsed either side of her. With a subtle grumble, Annabeth stood up and slouched over to Percy.  
“Reyna texted us all to meet her at the stop,” Leo replied, fiddling with a handful of wires, nuts and bolts. His warm, clay-brown eyes were bloodshot and puffy—Piper knew he’d been crying. “After Hazel told us all the news. I don’t know where we’re going.”

“Jason? Any clues?” Piper turned to her friend, who had a contorted sort of expression on his face, like somebody was tugging at his hair. He shook his head wearily.  
“Reyna’s a little unpredictable. We’ll just have to see.”  
“Can anybody tell me why Nico and Hazel aren’t here?” Piper jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She swivelled around to see Will, who’d jammed two earbuds in. Piper could only haphazard a guess as to what he was listening to. He looked exhausted, grim and angry. “I mean, Bianca was their sister. Shouldn’t they be a part of this?”  
_Was_. Not _is_ their sister. _Was_.

“They’re at home mourning,” Piper told him, patting his cheek reassuringly. “We wouldn’t have asked them to come this soon after…”  
Piper couldn’t finish, choosing to gulp back her tears instead. Jason squeezed her hand. Will’s eyes flitted downwards; Piper could see an odd, unsettling shadow in them. She’d never seen that in Will’s glances before. He always looked so… happy. Peaceful.  
Then again, now that Piper thought about it, things hadn’t always been holly-jolly for him. She’d only just learned about his missing aunt a few days ago.  
How many more things was Will Solace not telling anybody?

“So…” Leo must have noticed the tension beginning to chicken. He stretched his arms over his head. “Whatcha listening to, Will?”  
“A true crime podcast,” Will answer, resting his chin in his arms and leaning on the back of Piper, Jason and Leo’s seat. “About a murder from back in the thirties or something. I haven’t been paying much attention.”  
“Oh, dude,” Piper’s eyebrows shot up. “I thought you were listening to, like, indie music. Or alternative.”  
“Nah. Lee got me hooked on this series before he and Michael left again and I haven’t stopped listening to the cases.”  
“I got your music taste right, though, didn’t I?” Piper asked. Will cracked a half-hearted smile.  
“Yeah.”

“Is your favourite band still Amber Run?” Piper asked. Will nodded.  
“They’re going on tour next year, and I’m saving up to buy tickets to the nearest show. Kayla wants to come, but I’m aiming to get into the mosh pit, and god knows it’d be a nightmare looking after a thirteen-year-old girl in there.”  
“You’ll have to take somebody else.” Piper knew it was a hopeless attempt, trying to lighten the mood, but her friends all seemed so… pained. She despised it. “I think Percy likes them.”  
“I’d rather take a sewer rat.” Will screwed up his nose. “Remember when you all stayed at mine, when Bianca…” he froze, then cleared his throat and kept going. “Yeah. Anyway, Percy and I had to share the mattress because the rest of you suck? If I have to be that close to him again I’ll get war flashbacks.”

Piper rolled her eyes.

A half-hour later, Reyna pulled everybody off the bus. Piper found herself standing in the afternoon sun out the front of a lake, confused as ever.  
“Why are we at a lake?” Frank spoke for Piper’s feelings. Reyna didn’t answer; instead, she took a deep breath and ran along the pier, diving head-first into the water.  
Silence fell. Then, the person Piper would have least expected to jump into unchecked, probably freezing waters ran after Reyna, jumping in no particular sort of dive.  
The second Annabeth’s feet hit the water, Reyna surfaced.  
“Not that I don’t trust your judgement,” Piper half-yelled to her. “But… what?”  
“Clear your head!” Reyna replied, watching Annabeth break the film of the glittering water with a gasp.

“It’s fucking cold!” She exclaimed, treading water. Piper did not fail to notice how nice her hair looked when it was wet and shone golden in the sun.  
“Exactly! _To clear your head_.”  
Next to Piper, Percy sighed, and stripped off his shirt. His cheeks were stained with dried tears.  
“Guess she has a point,” he mumbled, and sprinted to join the girls in the water.  
He was followed by Frank, Leo and Will, until only Jason and Piper were left standing still at the edge of the jetty.  
“I feel guilty,” Jason blurted. Piper looked up and saw him covering his face, shoulders shaking. Her heart crumbled.

“Why?” She asked, already feeling like she was going to burst into more tears. Jason laughed humorously, his voice quavering.  
“Because Bianca just died and all I’m doing is standing around with my friends,” he sobbed. “Not grieving her or anything. I mean, she was like a little sister to me… and now she’s gone…”  
Piper didn’t know what to say. Her gaze flickered to where the rest of her friends floated calmly and peacefully, trading quiet stories about Bianca. Annabeth seemed to be in the middle of describing the time Bianca had scaled a wall to prove a point to Persephone.

It was like a switch flipped in Piper’s head. When Bianca had encouraged her to accept that she’d be gone soon ( _now_ ), she hadn’t been telling her to get over it. She was telling her not to feel sad that she was gone—but happy that she’d had a wonderful life.  
And to be grateful that Piper herself would probably live for a long time, surrounded by the people she loved.

“Bianca wouldn’t want you to feel guilty,” Piper said slowly. “She tried to tell me that before she died. She would want—or, does want—you to remember her in the kindest way possible.”  
Jason wiped his eyes and lowered his hands. Piper smiled gently and grabbed his arm.  
“Let’s clear our heads, yeah?”  
Jason returned her smile, nodding.  
“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is very much appreciated!  
> Question of the chapter: have you ever moved across the country?


End file.
